Wild At Heart (1990) Dir: David Lynch
- Ridley Coote
- Jun 13
- 3 min read
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David Lynch has a litany of weird and wonderful films amongst his classic filmography, but one that had gone a little under my radar, at least until recently, was this romantic crime thriller from 1990, based on the novel by Barry Glifford. With the recent passing of the great filmmaker, I was determined to explore more of his films, and a local independent cinema showing allowed me to watch this one on the big screen.
The film boasted an epic romance soundtrack, which featured a number of brilliant throwback songs, including one of my all-time favourites: 'Wicked Game', by Chris Isaak. Not only is the soundtrack full of great music, but Lynch used it in a very interesting and typically atypical way. It made every sound in the film more interesting, diegetic or otherwise.
The cinematography, as one can expect of Lynch, was full of intriguing and unique little features that only he could fully pull off. The surreal colours, filters, angles, make-up, even the performances - everything was a little uncanny valley in the best way. It also featured a lot of shots of roads at night - an understated staple of Lynch films. Even the costume designs were all a little odd, yet somehow quite appropriate.
Lynch is known for his dreamlike, quirky, and surreal, storytelling, so when it came to watching this film, I knew I had to keep an open mind. The way I'd describe this film's narrative would be; bizarre, but brilliant. It was full of steaming-hot romance, surprisingly graphic violence, and more 'Wizard of Oz' references, implicit and explicit, than one can shake a stick at. It was bold, it was fascinating, and it was extremely surreal. I loved it.
Nicolas Cage gave one of the most Nicolas Cage performances I've ever seen, and it was absolutely epic. He was dramatic, he was intense, he was extremely charismatic. I'm not sure I've ever watched a better performance by this version of Cage. He just perfectly suited this strange and over-the-top world so perfectly, and he was impossible to look away from.
Laura Dern gave a tremendously versatile performance, which balanced melodrama with riveting absurdity very succinctly. I can see why, based on this performance alone, Lynch called Dern the greatest actress - she was superb. She ate up the screen, she rocked every outfit, she oozed romance and emotion. It was a truly top class performance, which was wild at heart, and weird on top.
There was some extremely entertaining performances from the talented supporting cast, most notably from Diane Ladd, who was amazingly unhinged, and Willem Dafoe, who was incredibly devious and villainous. The likes of Harry Dean Stanton, J. E. Freeman, and Isabella Rossellini also deserve mentions at the very least for their equal parts memorable and surreal performances.
Overall, I wasn't expecting to say this necessarily, but I think this might be one of my new favourite films. It just had so much of everything in it. I had such a good time watching it in so many ways, and it was full of compelling and odd action, which utterly captivated me. Their are two words featured in the film's title that are extremely appropriate; 'wild' and 'heart' - the film is filled with both in abundance. This is a true classic romance film.
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