The title sequence of David Lynch’s new film follows a limousine as it navigates the pitch-dark, dangerous curves of Los Angeles’s Mulholland Drive. It makes perfect sense why Lynch would name his film after this famous road. From its vantage point, you can clearly see but cannot reach the glittering wealth and fame that Hollywood promises.

At the same time, you are always run the risk of veering off of Mulholland’s treacherous turns, sliding unstoppably down a hillside into the darkness of night. In “Mulholland Drive,” Lynch’s characters and his audience are lured in by the mysterious power of Hollywood but wind up plummeting into the unknown abyss below.

“Mulholland Drive” begins as the passenger in that limousine, a nameless brunette, narrowly escapes being murdered by a chance automobile accident. The enigmatic woman, played by Laura Harring, stumbles through the streets of Hollywood and takes refuge in a beautiful vacant apartment. The next morning, Betty Elms, played brilliantly by Naomi Watts, arrives in L.A. from Ontario, Canada, dreaming of movie stardom or becoming a great actress … or hopefully both.

She is right at home in Lynch’s vision of a romanticized, ’50s-era Hollywood. Completely awed, Betty is accompanied out of LAX by an elderly couple that keeps laughing enthusiastically. At first, they are humorous, nutty eccentrics, but they quickly grow ominous as Lynch keeps focusing on their sickeningly contorted faces. Similarly, “Mulholland Drive” begins with Lynch’s bizarre, unpredictable sense of humor, but the film slowly grows more disturbing and perplexing.

It turns out that the endearingly idealistic Betty is staying in her vacationing aunt’s apartment, where the mystery woman has been living. After an awkward meeting, Betty, the na