Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich

Director: Spike Jonze

Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman

Running time: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Indie



CRITIQUE:


Odd films are hard to pull off. Some can overturn itself due to failed premises, or perhaps just too many oddities involved. But Charlie Kaufman, a man accustomed to eccentricities, the peculiarities of life, the purveyor of strange situations yet strangely, movingly human, may it be in Adaptation or the perennial classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – crafts this debut screenwriting gig, which landed him his first Oscar nom (two more afterwards, and won the third), and hits the bulls-eye. Being John Malkovich has a concept that producers might have found their selves scratching their heads. But in the deft writing dexterity of Kaufman, the innovative directing of Spike Jonze, and the spot-on performances of its actors, a band of screwballs: John Cusack as the failed but still aspiring pupetter, the undistinguishable Cameron Diaz under the loony hair as the sexually ambiguous wife, the kohl-lipped, sarcastic Catherine Keener as the seductive work colleague, and John Malkovich, fantastic and kudos-worthy, as Malkovich himself, fearless and so game in satirising his persona without fuss, this film has pulled off its central ambition. To portray a world that is out of kilter where every character longs to be another person, or wanted their loved ones to be somebody else more perfect, a world that is very much like our own. This Alice-in-the-Wonderland head-trip down the rabbit hole is referenced in here, albeit a small door in this version that lands anyone into the wonderland that is Malkovich’s mind and eyesight. But before it gets just too weird for anybody’s taste, particularly that warped, mind-fucking ending of old people crawling into the subconscious tunnel – sit down and behold that tour-de-force of a scene, where John Malkovich enters into his own brain, a barroom filled with other Malkoviches where all words said were attuned to his own name. Nightmarish, but handled with spectacular humour.


VERDICT:

Nevertheless flawed and a tad too peculiar, Being John Malkovich should be praised for its audacious originality and quirkiness. Rarely do films are admired like that these days.



RATING: A-