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1) Fire Walk With Me is not Twin Peaks the television series. This is perhaps stating the obvious, but it quickly becomes apparent if one is a fan of or is familiar with the episodes that the tone, style and point-of-view of the movie could not be further apart from that of its small-screen predecessor. In reading some critiques of the movie, I saw the point argued that the murder of Laura Palmer had forced the townspeople to throw over a cloak of homespun eccentricity to cover the very real heart of darkness at the center of the town. This accounts for the at times goofier and warmer atmosphere of the series. It's all a front! I credit this opinion for giving me the freedom to see the film in a new light, but it can't completely dissolve the bitter taste. It goes against my grain to criticize a film for not being what I think it should be, but Fire Walk With Me feels like too much of a turning away from what gave the show its heart and spirit. With the exception of Lynch's supporting turn as Gordon Cole, all of the other familiar characters seem like bizarro-world partially lobotomized versions of themselves. They're also darker, sadder and less likable.

2) Laura Palmer is better as a construct, a cipher, or a guiding spirit than as a character. Sheryl Lee gives it her all, body and spirit, but the Laura Palmer that Twin Peaks really revolves around is the one staring out of the homecoming photo at the end of each television episode. By making her flesh and blood, the mystery of the project is all but drained out. With hindsight it seems that Twin Peaks, much like Sunnydale in Joss Whedon's universe, was really the true star of its series and as much of a magnet for the weird and the violent as Buffy's adopted hometown. Laura Palmer's murder was a hook to hang a point of view on and draw an audience into the unknown. Giving her too much weight and depth helps drag Fire Walk With Me down with her.

One item of interest to end on: the (second) most unnerving sequence in Fire Walk With Me - an alcohol and sex fueled outing at a Canadian juke joint - seemed remarkably less unsettling this time around. I remembered a cacophony so overpowering that it underscored Lynch's decision to use subtitles. On DVD, the sounds seemed less raucous and you could actually hear the actors saying their lines. As it turns out the sound mix in this scene was indeed done incorrectly on the Dolby audio tracks for the 2002 DVD release. If you want to hear it in its proper fury, listen to the French dubbed track during Chapter 25. You can also decide for yourself how accurate the translation is for Jacques Renault's immortal line: "I feel as blank as a fart."

Next time: this indie romance, shot in 1989 but not released in the US until the early '90s was Nicole Kidman's farewell to the Australian film industry, and Thandie Newton's debut feature.

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