Wild at Heart

"A genuinely wacky romance directed by David Lynch with one really great head shot and numerous references to The Wizard of Oz. As the years go by, I find that Lynch's films mature like wine with each viewing, and I appreciate Wild at Heart more and more." That's what I wrote here about the film exactly ten years ago, and today, after several more viewings, including one on a big screen, I can only add that it is simply a unique achievement, both in David Lynch's filmography and in world cinema in general. [KVIFF 2022] (23/07/2022)

I was very worried about what David Lynch would serve me this time. From the premise, however, it seemed that this film couldn't possibly turn out to be an intellectual mess, though with Lynch you really never know. In any case, I was once again treated to a terribly weird film, with weird characters, a weird story and a downright weird and unpleasant atmosphere that lingered with me long after it was over. But weird can also mean original, interesting, engaging, distressing... And that’s exactly how I see Wild at Heart. It's another unconventional Lynch for the discerning viewer, but it has charm and excellent direction, which this time makes all the strange and mystical work for the cause. And it also has a great cast led by a young Cage, the resilient Laura Dern and the disgustingly sleazy Willem Dafoe, whose verbal seduction I'm not likely to forget, though I'd quite love to. Lynch really knows his stuff, I'm sorry that I don't have such an appreciation for his "mindfuck" gems anymore. (04/02/2013)

Not a dynamic road movie, but a brutal and somewhat crazy ride, whose content I either didn't understand or is really as idiotic as it seemed to me. David Lynch himself in his prime again, serving one oddity after another. Some scenes were so insane that I absolutely didn't get them, others were completely unrelated to the story, and Lynch also edits in a terribly confusing way for my taste. (09/05/2005)

The most insane romance I’ve ever seen. Even though it has plenty of Lynch’s abnormality, Wild At heart was missing something that would make it not just weird, but unforgettably weird. That said, Cage, Dern and especially Defoe deliver remarkable creations that help the film to get somewhere just below the summit of the audience’s refined tastes (in the good sense). 7/10 (07/04/2009)

Wild at Heart is kind of like Indiana Jones in Lynch's style. The director took a trashy literary motif and turned it into an intelligent parody of the genre. Additionally, he added his classic ingredients, such as perversion, craziness, and the madness of his characters, so that a viewer who has seen, for example, Blue Velvet, essentially gets the same thing, but much stronger, like a punch to the face. It's a subtle parody, where the director intentionally exaggerates his characters into caricatures. The film is interesting in how it mixes insane music into romantic or dark thriller situations. It uses his favorite actors, such as Laura Dern, who know well what kind of weirdo Lynch is and can meet him halfway. At the same time, Lynch doesn't go into purely hallucinogenic territory here and the film is consumable for a wider audience. Overall impression: 80%. (06/07/2012)