Inland Empire

David Lynch films have never been particularly easy on audiences, but Inland Empire takes the director's eccentricity to new heights: it's a near-three-hour practical joke without a punch line that is at once maddeningly obscure and infinitely boring—an experimental stream-of-unconsciousness epic that even lacks a strong visual distinction that might relieve the narrative obfuscation. Basically, Inland Empire intertwines three stories. The first involves an actress named Nikki (Laura Dern) who's the lead in a movie directed by Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons). But the plot quickly disintegrates, or deconstructs, into overlapping threads: the second narrative line apparently consists of footage from Kingsley's movie, while the third features scenes that take place in Poland, which may represent events on which the script is based or could be from an earlier film that (we're told) was left unfinished when its stars were murdered. It's not only difficult to tell what footage goes with which storyline, but also how the segments are supposed to fit together. Even more baffling are scenes in which actors dressed in human-sized rabbit suits somberly recite nonsensical lines on a stage, their dialogue punctuated by a laugh track. Maybe all of this is intended as a commentary on the multiple dimensions of reality, or maybe it's a portrait of descent into madness, or maybe an illustration of the illusory nature of film itself. Who cares? Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras on this two-disc set include 75 minutes of “More Things That Happened” (additional scenes), 42 minutes of “Stories” (with Lynch reflecting on past works), a 30-minute “Lynch 2” behind-the-scenes featurette, “Quinoa” footage of Lynch preparing a meal (20 min.), the 13-minute short film “Ballerina,” stills, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an inscrutable mess of a film.] (F. Swietek)