being

Being John Malkovich

Rating:

The Info:

Directed by: Spike Jonze
Written by: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich
Produced by: Steve Golin, Vincent Landay, Sandy Stern, Michael Stipe

The Nutshell:

A puppeteer discovers a portal into the head of John Malkovich.

The Review:

Have you ever been to the supermarket and seen a tabloid headline screaming “Julia Roberts to have Richard Simmons lovechild!”? Me neither, thank God, but you've probably seen one just as ludicrous, haven't you? Most of us see such headlines and laugh, knowing that tabloids are trash with no basis in fact. A day or two later, if someone mentions Julia Roberts (to use my example), you find yourself joking “Hey, yeah, I read that she is having Simmons’ baby!” and you all share a chuckle. However, underneath such light banter there is an undercurrent of true curiosity. Secretly, many of us wonder just what Julia Roberts was REALLY doing in that fuzzy photograph. Our Western culture is fascinated by the minutiae of our celebrities’ daily lives. Sure, you can dismiss those tabloid headlines, but if people didn't believe them, those papers wouldn't exist. In fact, the size of the subscription lists of The Enquirer and The Star prove it; we can't leave these people alone, because they aren't people... they are celebrities!

Being John Malkovich, the remarkable new film by Spike Jonze, examines this fascination with celebrity and takes us to its inevitable end: a portal that actually takes you inside of a celebrity, allowing you to be that star, for fifteen minutes. As the title suggests, the star in question is John Malkovich, a perfect choice for the film due to the smaller stature of his star compared to Robin Williams or Brad Pitt. By casting a star whose filmography isn't as well-known to the average American, Jonze can reveal another side to the celebrity issue, the fact that in some cases, we aren't even aware of why celebrities are celebrities.

As we watch Malkovich's life from behind his own eyes, we are shown a world where people can't resist greeting the star, quickly revealing that they actually have little knowledge of his work. One cab driver compliments John by saying “Hey, weren't you in that film? You know, the one where you played a jewel thief? I loved that movie, Mr. Malkovich.” When Malkovich mentions that he has never played a jewel thief, the cab driver doesn't really care. Such is the problem with celebrity; it is your status as a star that is what the public drools over, not you.

The portal into Malkovich's brain is discovered by Craig, a nerdy puppeteer (Cusack) working for a bizarre filing company. The portal is hidden in deep storage, and upon entering it, he finds himself seeing through John Malkovich's eyes. However, after fifteen minutes he gets dumped onto the side of the New Jersey Turnpike (an unfortunate side effect of the portal). This discovery changes his life, along with the lives of his animal-infatuated wife Lotte (Diaz) and his co-worker Maxine (Keener). The three of them discover a kind of erotic thrill in both a) being John Malkovich, and b) actually meeting and talking to the real thing, knowing that one of the others is inside his head watching.

The three actors (Cusack, Diaz and Keener) were given free reign with their characters, and it shows. Cusack’s Craig goes from being a pathetic-but-cute loser, to a disturbing and slightly scary man, to an unlikable bastard. Diaz switches back and forth from quiet victim to sexual thrill-rider, to gun-wielding madwoman. Keener’s Maxine remains fairly consistent as a cold stand-offish woman from start to near-finish, only enjoying life when she is in control. Only Malkovich is fully convincing as he lampoons his image and has a lot of fun with the role.

The story, written by Charlie Kaufman is original and fun. No one aspect of the film is “normal” per se. The office Craig works in is on the 7 and a half floor. To reach it involves stopping an elevator midway between floors, and to move around involves stooping. Craig’s boss Dr. Lector is a 105 year old with a penchant for talking of his sexual desires. Craig’s street puppet shows are often lewd, inspiring parents to become violent. Lotte’s pet chimp even gets his own flashback, to a time before he was taken out of the jungle. Many films have unexpected scenes of this calibre (a scene from Go comes to mind in which a stoned young man have a telepathic conversation with a cat), but seldom to films come this close to being 100% strange.

The film has only one real problem, and that is with the final third of the story. Once the novelty of the idea begins to wear off, Being John Malkovich gets a little boring. Too much time is spent on Lotte’s quest to find out the origins of the portal, Craig’s attempts to stay in Malkovich for longer lengths of time, and the result once he finds out how. By the time the film ends, in a chilling and dark manner, the audience is glad, for really, its attention was mostly lost half an hour earlier.

In the end, Being John Malkovich makes a strong point. Once the veneer of celebrity aloofness is taken away from a star, they are no longer any different than the rest of us. Once Maxine gets too used to being around Malkovich, she tires of him. It reminds us that these are people, people who merely appear different because we choose to see them as different. While its story lags in the end, Being John Malkovich is one of the year's most interesting and appealing films. Anyone tired of the formulaic, familiar mediocrity that represents most of Hollywood these days should run to see this film. It is like none other I have ever seen, and the same will hold for you.

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