One of the worst film experiences of my life was sitting through David Lynch's interminably boring Inland Empire at the cinema. Neither am I a fan of Mulholland Drive. Nevertheless, I've long been curious about his earlier works.
This 1980 biopic of deformed Victorian gentleman Joseph Merrick is clunky in parts, but on the whole thought-provoking and sometimes genuinely moving. Even the Lynchian indulgences feel avant grade rather than annoying.
The story is apparently faithful to the source material, except for one major difference: the film depicts Merrick as weak, exploited and abused by his cruel carnival master, until he is rescued by the surgeon Treves; when in fact the real-life Merrick was an enterprising soul who voluntarily entered into an equal partnership with a showman and made very good money in the process. Perhaps the filmmakers thought Merrick would be more sympathetic if portrayed as a helpless victim, but I would have liked to see a truer portrayal of the man - his gumption makes him all the more remarkable.
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