Lula (Laura Dern) is completely in love with her boyfriend
Sailor (Nicolas Cage). Lula’s mother Marietta (Diane Ladd) wants Sailor dead
after he turned down her advances. The first hit she put out on him failed as
Sailor killed the would-be hitman, landing him in jail for two years. After
Sailor served his sentence, Lula and Sailor decide to run away from Lula’s
controlling mother to California. Distressed and fearing that Sailor knows too
much about her past, Marietta asks her boyfriend Johnnie (Harry Dean Stanton)
to track the pair down and her past lover Marcellus Santos (J.E. Freeman) to
arrange Sailor’s death. During their getaway, Lula and Sailor encounter many
strange figures during their drive down the dusty, yellow highway.
Wild at
Heart is a David Lynch adaptation of Barry Gifford’s novel of the
same name. Lynch combines numerous references to The Wizard of Oz, uneasiness, a love of rock n roll music, and a
general dreamlike sensibility to create an atmospheric road-trip. Two of the
most striking motifs in Wild at Heart
are fire and the colour red. In the opening credits, a match is struck; a flame
springs to life before quickly turning into an inferno. Whenever a match or
cigarette is lit, it is shot in extreme close-up until we can see the ash starting
to form at the tip. Red high heel shoes, red fingernails and red toe nails are
possessed by Lula, a link to The Wizard
of Oz. At certain points, Lula curls her hands until they look like taloned
hands, implying that Lula has the potential to turn into a Wicked Witch like
her mother. The inclusion of The Wizard
of Oz dialogue and imagery suggests, firstly, that Lula and Sailor are
taking a trip through a fantastical yet menacing land, familiar yet strange. Men
sound like Munchkins, a woman with a ‘tin leg’ is contracted to kill Sailor and
some scenes are viewed through a crystal ball. Secondly, it mirrors their
desire to find ‘home’ and achieve their dreams, whilst fleeing the wrathful vengeance
of an abject maternal figure. Or perhaps, it is merely a coping mechanism our
loved-up duo has concocted for themselves, thus giving the scenes an ironic
touch about them.
However intriguing the relationship between the pop
references and the film itself maybe, Wild
at Heart suffers from some pacing problems and the plot can lack clarity at
times. The film enjoys using sudden cuts, jumping to one scene before jumping
back to our idyllic couple. Whilst it does create a sense of dissociation, it
does create some confusion over which character is which and who is working for
whom, as the audience doesn’t get a chance to familiarise themselves with some
of the supporting characters. For all the weird tangents Wild at Heart takes, some of them drag on a bit too long, and it is
hard for the film to recover. That is not to say these vignettes are
ineffective – the image of Marietta smearing herself with red lipstick is
disconcerting – but the film becomes a collection of bits and pieces as opposed
to a cohesive whole. Also, the inclusion of Lula’s trauma that she had been
raped by her uncle was unnecessary and added nothing to the story.
Nicolas Cage is a wild card whenever he is in a film. Cage
will put in everything he has got into his performance, when he doesn’t it is
pretty damning statement of your film, but at the risk of steamrolling over
your film. In Wild at Heart, Cage
seems to be a perfect fit for the role of Sailor, a romantic ex-convict with a
passion for rock music and completely devoted to Lula. Cage captures Sailor’s
wild energy and his tenderness towards Lula, in a thoughtful performance that
dispenses with the typical ‘macho’ hero. Long-time Lynch collaborator Laura
Dern is great as Lula, a young woman who experiences forebodings and is
sexually liberated. Dern portrays Lula sweet and flirtatious, prone to musing about
the past and future, and equally infatuated with Sailor. Diane Ladd performs
with a nervy energy as Marietta, an over-controlling Southern mother used to
getting her own way. Ladd goes from calculatingly seductive through to experiencing
a mental breakdown. Willem Dafoe makes a skin-crawling appearance as Bobby
Peru, a skivvy lecherous man who stalks the motel park Sailor and Lula are
staying in.
Wild at
Heart is a flawed but interesting experience, although it is one
of David Lynch’s less compelling works.
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