A prequel to the Twin Peaks television series, Fire Walk with Me begins after Teresa Banks has been murdered. Chester Desmond (Chris Isaak) and Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland), two FBI agents, have been called in to investigate. After forty minutes or so, this story line is dropped and we meet Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), an oddly adult high school student who was homecoming queen and who looks like a stereotypically cute, perky, "middle" American living behind a proverbial white picket fence. But Palmer has a dark side, which Fire Walk with Me takes a great deal of time exploring.
I probably shouldn't be writing this review yet. I'm just now getting around to the Twin Peaks universe, and I haven't yet watched the television series except for "Chapter 1" from the first season. I'll likely completely change this review at some point in the future, but I'm posting it now in the hope that it might help someone decide whether the film is worth viewing for them, or at least it might provide some interesting comments.
If one wants to avoid spoilers and have a better chance of understanding this film, it seems like maybe Fire Walk with Me should not be viewed until one has seen the television series. Here's why I watched it first: I've long been a fan of Lynch's films. When Twin Peaks appeared on television in the early 1990s, I was working as a musician on a cruise ship and did not have the opportunity to watch it. I knew there was a film made, but I didn't realize it was made after the series, and I did not want to watch it without being able to also experience the television show. Cut to 2002. The first season is finally released on DVD, so I figure here's my chance to watch it. The beginning of the first episode says, "Previously on Twin Peaks". Previously? I'm pretty obsessive about watching series in order, so "previously" bothered me a lot. I ran to the Internet to look for Twin Peaks chronologies, and I find out that there is a two-hour pilot episode--often those are simply thought of as feature-length films, so I figured that Fire Walk with Me is it.
I finally picked up Fire Walk with Me yesterday. Before watching I double-checked just enough of the DVD box synopsis to be sure that I should watch it first. It said "prequel", so I went ahead, figuring that "prequel" just meant it was the "initial film". I know prequels are usually made later in film series, but even when that's the case, I more often than not watch prequels "in order" before the other films on subsequent viewings. Besides, I thought that "prequel" was likely just being used in a different way here. When you're a fan of someone like David Lynch, you often expect almost everything they do to be deeply enigmatic.
So is the film worth watching under circumstances similar to mine? Well, I did enjoy it, but primarily for the reason that attracts me to Lynch--I'm a big fan of surrealism, absurdism, etc. Fire Walk with Me is nothing if not bizarre. However, unlike other Lynch films there seems to be an absence of clues within the film to figure out Fire Walk with Me. I'm only assuming that the series will provide more clues. I may be wrong. But at this point, I'm not about to read others' interpretations of the film, as I'm worried they might give further spoilers for the show. As I've mentioned, I've only watched the first episode of the television series so far. I finally figured out that the two-hour pilot episode is something different, and not included on the Season 1 disc, but it's too late now. I assumed that the "Previously on Twin Peaks" intro was just Lynch being bizarre again, but unfortunately that's not the case. While we're at it, I have to note that based on the first episode, the series isn't doing much for me. It's far too normal and non-Lynchian (of course not helped by the fact that Lynch doesn't direct most of the episodes). I'm not a fan of soap opera-like, realist drama, and so far that's what the series primarily seems to be.
As always, Fire Walk with Me has Lynch's extreme attention to and manipulation of cinematic details. For example, there is a sequence of long, odd silence (in the police station), there is a production design-related instance of weird, minute "clues" in the appearance of a woman in a pink dress, characters are directed to use strange speech mannerisms, there is an unsettling combination of eras in the setting (cars of different eras, characters acting liking combinations of 50s and 80s youths per popular depictions, etc.), there are peculiar layers of information, such as the cowboy/redneck bar band playing uncharacteristic music, and of course there are cutaways to bizarre people, saying and doing bizarre things--such as the midget talking about Formica tables and saying "Garmonbozia". I love all of that stuff.
I was a bit disappointed that the early part of the film was abandoned, as the investigative story was good, but the material about Laura Palmer was intriguing in its own way. Her behavior, and the behavior of those around her, became increasingly more abnormal and fascinating as the film went on, so that worked for me well. But I still don't know how to interpret the film, and I hope the series doesn't put me off. I also hope the series is eventually released in its entirety (including the two-hour episodes at the beginnings of seasons--it was a crime to leave that off of Season 1). Fire Walk with Me is worth watching for fans of Lynch weirdness, but I can't really recommend watching the film before watching the series.
I probably shouldn't be writing this review yet. I'm just now getting around to the Twin Peaks universe, and I haven't yet watched the television series except for "Chapter 1" from the first season. I'll likely completely change this review at some point in the future, but I'm posting it now in the hope that it might help someone decide whether the film is worth viewing for them, or at least it might provide some interesting comments.
If one wants to avoid spoilers and have a better chance of understanding this film, it seems like maybe Fire Walk with Me should not be viewed until one has seen the television series. Here's why I watched it first: I've long been a fan of Lynch's films. When Twin Peaks appeared on television in the early 1990s, I was working as a musician on a cruise ship and did not have the opportunity to watch it. I knew there was a film made, but I didn't realize it was made after the series, and I did not want to watch it without being able to also experience the television show. Cut to 2002. The first season is finally released on DVD, so I figure here's my chance to watch it. The beginning of the first episode says, "Previously on Twin Peaks". Previously? I'm pretty obsessive about watching series in order, so "previously" bothered me a lot. I ran to the Internet to look for Twin Peaks chronologies, and I find out that there is a two-hour pilot episode--often those are simply thought of as feature-length films, so I figured that Fire Walk with Me is it.
I finally picked up Fire Walk with Me yesterday. Before watching I double-checked just enough of the DVD box synopsis to be sure that I should watch it first. It said "prequel", so I went ahead, figuring that "prequel" just meant it was the "initial film". I know prequels are usually made later in film series, but even when that's the case, I more often than not watch prequels "in order" before the other films on subsequent viewings. Besides, I thought that "prequel" was likely just being used in a different way here. When you're a fan of someone like David Lynch, you often expect almost everything they do to be deeply enigmatic.
So is the film worth watching under circumstances similar to mine? Well, I did enjoy it, but primarily for the reason that attracts me to Lynch--I'm a big fan of surrealism, absurdism, etc. Fire Walk with Me is nothing if not bizarre. However, unlike other Lynch films there seems to be an absence of clues within the film to figure out Fire Walk with Me. I'm only assuming that the series will provide more clues. I may be wrong. But at this point, I'm not about to read others' interpretations of the film, as I'm worried they might give further spoilers for the show. As I've mentioned, I've only watched the first episode of the television series so far. I finally figured out that the two-hour pilot episode is something different, and not included on the Season 1 disc, but it's too late now. I assumed that the "Previously on Twin Peaks" intro was just Lynch being bizarre again, but unfortunately that's not the case. While we're at it, I have to note that based on the first episode, the series isn't doing much for me. It's far too normal and non-Lynchian (of course not helped by the fact that Lynch doesn't direct most of the episodes). I'm not a fan of soap opera-like, realist drama, and so far that's what the series primarily seems to be.
As always, Fire Walk with Me has Lynch's extreme attention to and manipulation of cinematic details. For example, there is a sequence of long, odd silence (in the police station), there is a production design-related instance of weird, minute "clues" in the appearance of a woman in a pink dress, characters are directed to use strange speech mannerisms, there is an unsettling combination of eras in the setting (cars of different eras, characters acting liking combinations of 50s and 80s youths per popular depictions, etc.), there are peculiar layers of information, such as the cowboy/redneck bar band playing uncharacteristic music, and of course there are cutaways to bizarre people, saying and doing bizarre things--such as the midget talking about Formica tables and saying "Garmonbozia". I love all of that stuff.
I was a bit disappointed that the early part of the film was abandoned, as the investigative story was good, but the material about Laura Palmer was intriguing in its own way. Her behavior, and the behavior of those around her, became increasingly more abnormal and fascinating as the film went on, so that worked for me well. But I still don't know how to interpret the film, and I hope the series doesn't put me off. I also hope the series is eventually released in its entirety (including the two-hour episodes at the beginnings of seasons--it was a crime to leave that off of Season 1). Fire Walk with Me is worth watching for fans of Lynch weirdness, but I can't really recommend watching the film before watching the series.