Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

"The tender boughs of innocence burn first, and the wind rises, and then all goodness is in jeopardy.", 11 February 2005

This film is essentially a prequel to the television series Twin Peaks. The movie begins one year before the television show with two FBI agents investigating the death of a waitress, Teresa Banks. After a half-hour, the focus of the movie switches to events that take place in the week that leads up to the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The events during the last week of Laura's life are filled with drugs, alcohol, and sex , and her murder is extremely brutal and violent. At this point, the television series begins. And things lighten-up quite a bit.

The primary focus of the movie is the relationship between Laura Palmer and her father, Leland Palmer (Ray Wise). While Lee is adequate in the role of Laura, Wise excels at giving life to Leland. His ability to express emotion (fear, sadness, rage, etc.) is amazing, if not a little over the top. Another actor/character worth mentioning is Frank Silva as Bob. His character and performance are among the most frightening I've ever seen.

As I said, Lynch has a lot of different things going on in the movie. Many are not really essential to the plot and could have, perhaps, been left out. For example, the first thirty minutes has almost nothing to do with what follows. Lynch could have shortened the movie to 90 minutes and made a tighter film that might have better appealed to an audience beyond the built-in television audience. In my mind, the "padding" contained in this movie is its greatest weakness.

While the original television series presented life in a quirky town that could never exist in reality, the movie takes the bizarre nature of the town and stretches it to the point of non-believability. Take the scene with David Bowie as an example. He is seen walking down the hall at an FBI office and entering the office of his superior. As he gets halfway to the desk, he disappears. No one seems overly surprised - they act as if it is a normal part of the day.

I was a huge fan of the television series during its initial run and was very excited when I first heard that Lynch was making this movie. While I enjoyed Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, I doubt I would have liked it nearly as much if I hadn't seen the series before I went to the theater. I don't think a non-fan of the show would have a clue about what was happening on screen.

7/10