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Director
Spike Jonze
Writer Charlie Kaufman
Stars John Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine
Keener
Certificate 15
Running time 112 mins
Made US, 1999
BEING John
Malkovich takes us into a playful, upside-down world where the ludicrous
is accepted without question and the normal rules of biology and physics
don't apply. Frustrated puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is
our guide, the perfect straight man. From its premise -- that a hidden
doorway leads people into John Malkovich's head -- to its tidy conclusion,
this is a funny, enjoyable and surprisingly sexy film.
Charlie Kaufman's wildly original script grapples with such high-minded
issues as love, lust, mortality, celebrity, and identity. Yet anytime
we're in danger of taking it too seriously, we're brought back to
earth, usually by Maxine (played with casual flair by Catherine Keener),
Craig's opportunistic co-worker. ``Truth is for suckers, Johnny boy,''
Maxine tells Malkovich, who plays himself.
Director Spike Jonze intersperses melodrama and humour, reality and
the outrageous. A television show highlights Derek Mantini, Craig's
nemesis, who ``thrilled onlookers'' by performing ``The Belle of Amherst''
with a 60-foot tall Emily Dickinson puppet. Craig's office is on floor
7 1/2, where the ceilings are half-size and everyone walks around
bent over.
When Craig and Maxine turn the Malkovich portal -- a gooey, humming
passageway reminiscent of the birth canal -- into a money-making venture,
they find no shortage of takers. People may not know what movie Malkovich
was in, but they're willing to fork out 200 bucks to gaze out of his
eyes while he orders new towels or reads the morning paper.
Jonze contrasts Maxine's lean elegance with the flyaway hair and dumpy
clothes of Craig and his dowdy wife Lotte (brilliantly acted by Cameron
Diaz). The sounds leap out at you -- crunching toast, Malkovich's
hand rubbing across his bald head -- and remind you of the director's
start in music videos. Go ahead, sink into this movie and lose yourself.
Katherine M. Reynolds
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The Wolf's review of Being John Malkovich
Read Nicholas Dawson's review of Being John
Malkovich
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