movie of the week:           sunday, november 12, 1999

This movie is still in theaters, and anyone who loves acting, movies, cleverness, the state of "today's Hollywood", independent film, cleverness (did I mention cleverness) needs to get down to whichever multiplex is still showing this film and prepare for an evening at the movies which  will not be easily forgetten.

Since I like to dispense with plot descriptions, and since this film has one of the cleverest plots in history, I will do it justice by outlining it in the next paragraph, but will not "ruin" anything.

Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) and his wife Lotte (an unrecognizable Cameron Diaz) live and work in New York. Craig is a puppeteer. His feeble attempts at streetcorner puppetry gain him nothing but contempt, and his work is overshadowed by a much more famous puppeteer whose latest work is a gigantic puppet of Elizabeth Barret Browning reading her poetry. Craig's racy version of Heloise and Abelard enrages irate citizens who beat him up. Lotte works in a pet store and has a menagerie staying at the couple's brownstone. They are quirky, but happy, but need more sustenance in their lives, and Craig ties his prodigious mop of hair into a ponytail, and begins a search for "real " work, which leads him to the 7-1/2 floor of the Metin-Flemmer building, where he begins work as a file clerk at LesterCorp for Dr. Lester, a 105 year old sex maniac who runs this filing empire. The film doesn't explain why a firm offering filing capabilities is needed in this world of computers, but that certainly isn't the first nor the last thing that isn't explained. It doesn't impair one's capability to understand nor enjoy the subsequent goings on, either. On the 7-1/2 floor, for instance (it was built for the owner's dwarf wife, so she could feel at home) everybody has to stoop over in order to get around. The audience I saw this film with couldn't stop laughing everytime they saw this gag, and the gags just get better. Craig meets Maxine, and immediately falls in love and lust with her. His wife spends too much time with her animals, anyway, and Craig begins obsessing about Maxine, who bluntly tells him he "wouldn't know what to do with her if he had her." He stays late at the office, trying to make time with Maxine, and finds, behind a filing cabinet, a small door not unlike the one which takes Alice into Wonderland. Behind it is a portal, and he is sucked into John Malkovich's brain.

When Maxine hears of this portal, she immediately thinks this might be a good way to make money, and a scheme is born. Lotte becomes the first person other than Craig to enter into Malkovich, and instead of bringing husband and wife together, the ploy drives them apart in ways that have to be witnessed.

I won't tell anymore. John Malkovich plays himself in the kind of performance which is sure to be noticed come Oscar time. Catherine Keener, one of my favorite current actresses, is beautiful as well as brainy. Cameron astounds with her ability in film after film (Very Bad Things, Something About Mary) to play against her beauty. John Cusack is simply one of the best underrated actors in film. Spike Jonez, a video director, brings a crazed sensibility to this film which I haven't seen since I first saw David Lynch's Eraserhead, although this is not a 'creepy' film, but rather a film filled with wonder and elation.
In fact, Being John Malkovich ties together the nature of fame, the spark of creativity, the notion of sex and role reversal, the question of the meaning of existence , all into one of the cleverest conceipts shown on the big screen in a while, if not forever. I highly recommend this film, and knew immediately, as did the scant audience, that we were witnessing a cult film in the making.

Some of my readers have said I tend to "ramble" , and that I am not concise in my reviews, talking about myself and other reviewers opinions. I feel that my psyche of course is what dictates whether I like a film or not, and is the barometer of whether or not I will recommend a film,  and I read the other reviews to find out what dissident opinions are in the ether. While this is a critical "smash" and has racked up some impressive BO numbers given the scant number of screens it has played on, I still don't think enough people have seen it. I really don't want to "ramble" in this review. Pure and simple, this is a clever movie. (I've used that word about eight times now.) Spike Jonez is a talent to watch. Charlie Kaufman's script is a wonder. The film is a delight to look at, and the "Malkovich" sequences are especially funny.

So many films are retreads of something that has come before, so the simple originality of this piece recommends it. I am writing this too long after it initially  came out to remember precise reviewer's opinions, but I seem to get the impression that some people tried to find a credibility in the goings-on. There needs to be no credible explanation of Being John Malkovich. Once you are John Malkovich, you will be saved. See the movie. See for yourself.