Being John Malkovich
dir. spike jonze
st. john cusack, cameron diaz, john malkovich, catherine keener
USA 1999 112 mins
Australian theatrical release: Dec 26 1999
This is one of those films that excites me, because it is packed with original ideas.John Cusack is an unemployed puppeteer, married to the frizzy haired Cameron Diaz, a pet shop owner who brings her problem animals home with her. John decides to put his nimble fingers to work and takes a job as a file clerk for a company that exists on the 7½ floor of a Manhattan building. One day he discovers a hidden doorway that is a portal into the head of John Malkovich. John goes into partnership with a sexy and aloof woman with whom he has fallen in love with and they start a business that sells excursions into Malkovich's head. The film is mostly focused on the bizarre love triangle between Cusack and his partner and his wife, and of course John Malkovich, which really makes it a love quadrangle.
The films starts with an abundance of humour and strange ideas, then turns stranger and a little nasty as plots evolve and emotions run rampant. Business booms, love blooms in unexpected ways, rejection drives people wild, Cusack puts his puppeteering skills to use and learns how to control Malkovich's body, Charlie Sheen appears as himself, Malkovich's career takes an unexpected turn, and we find out the story behind the doorway.
Malkovich does a great job playing himself, and I would love to see him win an Oscar for portraying the way the surreal can invade real life. How do you approach someone and say, 'We want you to be in a movie where you play yourself and people crawl inside your head'? This is Malkovich's best role since he played a jewel thief in that film I can't remember the title of.
Being John Malkovich reminded me of a Terry Gilliam effort (strange ideas, strange sets, strange characters) without being derivative. The puppets and puppet work are great. The marionettes look just like the actors and I wonder if the actors were able to keep them?
With so many comedies on the market lately, and most of them relying on 'low brow' humour (Deuce Bigelow, American Pie, etc) it is nice to see a clever comedy that delivers the laughs. I saw this film at the Dendy, and it was good to be there for a film that people laugh at. The last film I saw there was Saviour, and people cried during that. Before I went to the film I was wearing my promotional Malkovich mask around work which confused people. People kept saying he was creepy. Sometimes my world is just as odd as the cinema, people get unsettled by the most minor things.
sebastian niemand
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