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Being John Malkovich

Rating

Director

Spike Jonze

Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman

Length

1h 53m

Starring

John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Ned Bellamy, Mary Kay Place, Orson Bean, Catherine Keener, K.K. Dodds, Reggie Hayes, Byrne Piven, John Malkovich

MPAA Rating

R

Review

What if you could be someone else for a few minutes? What if that person was John Malkovich?

First-time director Spike Jonze and first-time screenwriter Charlie Kaufman bring one of the year’s quirkiest and most offbeat comedies to the big screen with startling realism. “Being John Malkovich” is a rare treat of a film that has better screenwriting than anything else put into it. Kaufman’s screenplay is Oscar-caliber.

John Cusack plays Craig Schwartz, an out-of-work puppeteer who can’t seem to break out of the shadow of his rival. When his wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) an extreme animal lover forces him to find work, he seeks employment with Dr. Lester (Orson Bean) as a filing clerk.

Not until he arrives at the building does he discover how odd the world really is. The office is on the seven-and-a-half floor. A lady in the elevator sees his perplexed look and helps him to find the floor by pushing the stop button between 7 and 8 and then prying the doors open to reveal a half-sized hallway with workers stooping to go about their business.

He’s not there for long when he meets an attractive co-worker, Maxine (Catherine Keener), who he constantly tries to get to go out with him, but fails miserably every time. It is only after he discovers a well-hidden door in the filing room that she takes any interest. The door leads inside the head of John Malkovich where you spend 15 minutes seeing through his eyes and experiencing everything that he feels and then you’re dumped off on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.

They turn it into a terrific business venture but when Maxine discovers that she can have sex with Lotte vicariously through Malkovich, everything goes south and it’s a battle for Maxine through Malkovich for both Lotte and Craig.

John Malkovich is insanely hilarious. His brief encounter with his own mind is a marvelous visual treat that teases the senses and tickles the funny bone. Cusack maintains his loveable, yet disgusting mannerisms through the film and Diaz is bizarrely deft at making herself unrecognizable for the majority of the film. Keener, on the other hand, seems a bit flat as does the rather simple Bean.

The acting is fine, but the one thing that keeps “Malkovich” from being a masterpiece is the horrendous choice of shots. There is hardly a moment when the camera isn’t being tousled in handheld movement. Jonze is partly responsible, but a lot of the blame can also be placed on cinematographer Lance Acord. There is no sense to have half the shots filmed the way they are and the constant motion kept dragging the viewer out of the story.

“Malkovich” is quite thought provoking in its bizarre, yet somewhat gentle way. We always wonder what it would be like to live life as someone else…if even for a moment. Yet when we find ourselves wanting to stay where we are, we don’t actually stop being ourselves. Instead we slowly take over the person until they become us and all of our worldly problems that we tried to escape will come flooding back, no matter how successful we are in the long run.

The puppeteer analogy is a very astute one. It’s not hard for us to manipulate the very strings of others’ existences, but it is always to their detriment and while we express our own inner dissatisfaction through another vessel, we are doing no more good than if we lived our own lives as they were meant to be.

There are two questions the movie itself poses. Are we really ourselves or is someone else just manipulating us without our knowledge? Are we seeing the real John Malkovich or are we seeing yet another character that he has concocted out of his own, insatiably bizarre mind?

Awards Prospects

Best Picture is definitely not out of the question. A nomination is guaranteed for Original Screenplay. Supporting Actor for Malkovich is a good possibility. Keener and Diaz will likely cancel each other out for Supporting Actress unless the Academy feels guilty for not having given Diaz a nod last year for “There’s Something About Mary.” More distant is the chance for Director Jonze, but it is still possible. The rest of the categories seem a little unlikely outside of a stray tech nod such as for Editing.

Review Written

December 26, 1999