Being John Malkovich

And after a dry spell, Mark’s on a role with the movie time.

So this is one of those movies where everyone comes out saying something like, “That was the strangest movie I’ve ever seen. But it rocked!”

It’s the story of a puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) who can’t make any money doing what he loves. (Although he is a brilliant puppeteer. They start off with him doing a show with his own likeness and it’s pretty amazing.) His wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz looking like she had been dragged in by three or four cats–but I still want her), decides that it’s time for him to get a job so they can support their chimp, dog, birds and other assorted animals. So Craig gets a job on the 7 1/2 floor of a downtown NYC building as a file clerk. His boss, Lester (Orson Bean from Dr. Quinn) is a crazy old man who lusts after his secretary, Florice (Mary Kay Place) who can’t seem to understand a word anyone says. (She’s a speech therapist, so everyone must have a speech impediment.)

He also meets Maxine (Catherine Keener from 8MM, Living In Oblivion, Your Friends And Neighbors and Out Of Sight), his new object of desire. Unfortunately, she has no desire for him. Until, that is, he finds a portal into John Malkovich’s mind. Then she finds some monetary desire.

Yes, for only $200 you can be inside the mind of one of the greatest actors of our generation! You can experience the mania that is John Malkovich.

And that’s really all I can tell you about the movie. Anything more would give too much away. I will say, watch for the scenes where John enters his own mind, Lotte an Maxine reach his subconscious and a bunch of cameos of other big name actors. I love that a first time director can get these guys in his movie.

So, as I said, this is a very strange movie. I mean, can you imagine what it would be like to enter the mind of John Malkovich? He seems to be a little more normal than we all thought he was, though. The movie does, however, bring up a lot of questions about our own consciousness. What makes us us? Could we find a way to go into other people’s minds? What happens to a stick when Craig goes into John’s mind? Why do you get dumped out near the New Jersey Turnpike? Can you copyright a mind? And, most importantly, why John Malkovich?

Actually, I think I can figure that out. He was Charlie Kaufman’s first choice and I’m glad he said yes. Otherwise we could have ended up with Being Lou Diamond Phillips. And that would be bad. The movie is really well written. I can’t believe someone actually came up with something like this. What kind of a deranged mind can do this sort of thing? I’m glad they did, though.

Spike Jonze (from Three Kings, which I’m still mad that I missed) directs his first feature mainly with a handheld camera. That, of course, makes it even stranger. Mix constant movement with a story about disoriented souls and you get a weirdness that is intensified even beyond the story’s capabilities. And he never falls into the trap of a lot of music video directors (he did a lot of Beastie Boys videos, not to mention about 20 others, the only one of which I saw was Weezer’s “Buddy Holly”) like Michael Bay. No quick cuts of upturned faces and long crane shots of the band, er, actors. It’s all very gritty and down to earth, which gives it an edge that most semi-experimental films don’t have.

The acting is on par with everything else. Cusack is the ultimate loser who is brilliant with puppets, but can’t seem to keep people around him. Cameron is a sweet little innocent who gets caught up in a really weird scheme (that, amazingly enough, everyone just goes right along with) that almost destroys her by showing her something that she never knew about herself. Keener works very well as a conniving and manipulative woman who finds her way to something approaching love for someone that she never would have expected. And Orson Bean is, well Orson Bean. He’s funny as a sex-starved old man with a secret obsession with a certain actor. And, of course, Malkovich is brilliant as himself. Especially when Craig starts being able to take over his body. I never knew Molkovich was such a good dancer.

So what’s wrong with the movie? Well, not much actually. It’s awesome. There are a few little things like, would Malkovich really be good friends with Charlie Sheen? Doubt it. Other than that it’s great. One of the darkest and, of course, strangest movies with the creepiest ending I’ve seen in a long time. And it keeps the fun going, which is hard to do in flicks like this. How did they do it? The world may never know.

We’ll just have to wait for the sequel, Being Charlie Kaufman.