Being John Malkovich

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999)
Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring John Cusack, Catherine Keener & John Malkovich

The first collaboration between Director Spike Jonze and Writer Charlie Kaufman is exactly what you’d expect it to be: Surreal, at times f**ked up and, most importantly, intelligent, challenging and completely absorbing.

The clever and wildly imaginative writing style that would become a trademark of Kaufman’s in later films (see Adaptation; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is on full and glorious display in Being John Malkovich. The concept itself, a puppeteer who literally finds a portal into the mind of actor John Malkovich, is perhaps the most original I’ve ever heard and gladly, I’m able to say the film itself is only more of the same. From the small and numerous set pieces and character quirks to increasingly bigger and bolder plot points, it is nothing short of groundbreaking – avant-garde cinema at its finest.

The cast gathered to play the tricky roles on offer is excellent and their achievement is made all the more impressive with the fact that Kaufman created characters of an ilk never really seen before. John Cusack is appropriately creepy as the jobless puppeteer, Craig Schwartz, who finds Malkovich’s portal, gaining a certain sympathy from the audience he later turns on its head in such as a dramatic fashion. Cameron Diaz is an actress I’ve never really invested much time and attention in but she surprised me here with skill and subtleness in portraying Schwartz’s animal-loving wife, Lotte. Catherine Keener’s performance as Craig’s manipulative co-worker, Maxine, served perhaps more than anything to convince me even further that she is one of the best actresses of recent decades. And then of course there is the man himself, John Malkovich. It’s difficult to comprehend how he could have figured out this role, playing a kind of false version of himself in a highly surreal universe, with no previous similar character, from any actor, as a reference point.

In his first feature-length film, Spike Jonze carries off the direction with vigour in creating a world so rooted in the surreal it becomes hard to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Is this the real world we are seeing? Or a dreamland created by Schwartz to satisfy his longing to live through another, to escape? The questions thrown out at you over the course of the film are numerous and at times extremely difficult to answer. This makes for a challenging piece of cinema you’re not going to be able to sit through casually.

I still maintain that Eternal Sunshine... is Kaufman’s best work, but this comes extremely close. It is, though, by far the best I’ve seen from Cusack, Diaz, Jonze and indeed Malkovich himself. There is an atmosphere to it that is some ways is deeply disturbing, and in others genuinely uplifting. If you’ve yet to see it, then you most certainly have my recommendation.