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Don't listen to anyone who tells you that this movie is impossible to understand. That's not true. Difficult, yes...especially on first viewing, but there is method to David Lynch's madness and there is an explanation to be found for those willing to look. Mulholland Drive is a brilliantly structured film even though the structure is unconventional. Basically the first two hours play out as the dream of a very troubled young woman by the name of Diane Selwyn. In the final 30 minutes we are taken into Diane's reality. Mullholland Drive is a very disturbing portrait of the inner world of a woman about to commit suicide and we learn about her life and what led her to murder and suicide through the dream imagery of the first two hours. What confuses many people the first time they see Mulholland Drive is that David Lynch doesn't use the normal cinematic techniques to tip his audience off that they are watching a dream segment. In fact, the dream plays out in fairly conventional linear fashion while it is the reality portion of the film that plays out in non-linear form, jumping back and forth in time and introducing psychotic hallucinations as well. This further blurs the line between reality and fantasy in this film. Contrary to popular belief Mulholland Drive is actually very intricately plotted, although the narrative is not readily apparent on the first viewing. The dream portion is a mirror image of reality and it displays a reversed reflection of Diane's real world. A few examples: In the dream Rita exits the limousine and walks downhill; in reality Diane exits the limousine and walks uphill. In the dream Aunt Ruth is alive; in reality Aunt Ruth is dead. In the dream Adam Kesher's world is spinning out of control and he is losing everything; in reality Adam Kesher's world is very much in control and he has everything. In the dream the hitman is incompetent; in reality he turns out to be all too competent. In the dream Camilla is alive and Diane is dead; in reality Diane is alive and Camilla is dead. Betty is, of course, the idealized dream version of Diane. She's a prettier, more wholesome, and more talented version of Diane. However, Diane is not Betty in her dream as most people automatically assume...she's Rita. Mulholland Drive is a challenging and haunting film that I believe will only rise in stature as the years go by. David Lynch spoonfeeds nothing to his audience but challenges them to explore the nightmarish inner world of Diane Selwyn for themselves and reach their own interpretations and conclusions. There are great rewards for those willing to do so. Nov. 1, 2007 Edit: I just watched Mulholland Drive again after a few years and I was kind of surprised to see this old review of mine written years ago at the top here. I do think my understanding and appreciation of the film has deepened over the years and, although I still believe most of what I originally wrote is correct, I'd probably modify it a bit, especially the part about Diane being Rita in her dream. I now believe that Betty and Rita both represented different parts of Diane: Betty was her idealized, innocent side while Rita was the darker, more seductive side that she believed would help advance her career in Hollywood. One of the saddest parts of the movie, in my opinion, is my belief that the very likeable and attractive Betty was the person that Diane could have been if not for her tragic childhood and the series of destructive choices she made in her life. For those who've read and commented on my original review and are interested, here's a somewhat revised version that represents my current interpretation of the film. Mulholland Drive is a rather chilling look into the psyche of a deeply disturbed and suicidal woman named Diane Selwyn who is guilt stricken over her involvement in the murder of her estranged lover. The entire movie takes place in her apartment over the course of a few hours on the day she commits suicide. The first two hours is a dream Diane has during a heavy, drug-induced sleep that attempts to rewrite a happier, idealized version of herself and her life from the time she arrives in Hollywood, but gradually grows darker over time and eventually collapses back into her reality. The final part of the movie is her reality which is told through a series of flashbacks, memories, and psychotic hallucinations. First-time viewers often don't realize they're watching a dream since Lynch doesn't use the usual cinematic techniques (other than a brief first-person descent into a pillow at the beginning) to signal a dream sequence and this part of the film is told in fairly conventional linear sequence, while it's the reality part of the film that jumps around in non-linear fashion. The dream portion is kind of a dark, twisted version of Dorothy's dream from the Wizard of Oz where she casts people she knows from her real life into various roles in her dream. But since her subconscious is the producer, writer, and director of the dream these people are just actors on her stage and everything is really about Diane and her life even if she doesn't appear to be represented in a scene. For example, there's no reason to believe that a wealthy film director like Adam Kesher would check into a fleabag hotel like the Park Hotel when he thought he still had access to all his money nor would he know the hotel manager by name. Diane, however, who had lived on the fringes of the Hollywood dream, might well be familiar with this kind of seedy hotel and its manager. Once you realize that everything you're seeing in the first two hours springs from Diane's subconscious mind it's possible to take the clues and symbolism that Lynch plants in the dream and construct a remarkably deep and complex examination of Diane's life which also peels back the layers on a psyche that's been irreparably damaged by sexual molestation by her grandfather, prostitution, and a destructive relationship with an actress named Camilla Rhodes which ultimately leads to murder and suicide. Mulholland Drive is not only David Lynch's masterpiece, it's one of the most chilling movies I've ever seen.