BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
US, 1999, 112 minutes, Colour
John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, John Malkovich, Charlie Sheen.
Directed by Spike Jonze.
Being John Malkovich was written by Charlie Kaufmann. It is a surreal and bizarre script - given a somewhat realistic treatment to temper the surrealism and make it almost plausible. Director Spike Jonze is making his feature-length debut after making music videos and commercials.
John Cusack stars as a very talented puppeteer who is out of work. In his new job filing, on the seventh and a half floor of a building where all the ceilings are low (low overheads!), he comes across a secret door which leads into the mind of John Malkovich so that the person travelling becomes Malkovich for 15 minutes and is then thrown up on the New Jersey Turnpike. Fascinated by his co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener), they set up a business and soon many people are becoming John Malkovich for 15 minutes - and for $200. John Cusack's wife, played by Cameron Diaz, who works in a pet shop and has a monkey in psychotherapy, also experiences the trip and realises she wants to be a man, especially as she falls in love with Maxine.
What follows are complex interrelationships of men and women, identity and wanting to avoid one's own being and becoming a celebrity.
The star, of course, is Malkovich himself who allows his life and reputation to be put up there on the screen. He also gives a virtuoso performance as himself, as possessed by various people, especially by John Cusack and his puppeteering skills. There is a comic guest turn from Charlie Sheen as a friend of Malkovich.
The film aims to be quite profound at times, especially with the dialogue and philosophical issues. However, Johns' treatment emphasises the comic (and the film is very funny at times) but makes the film less profound by the end than it seemed to intend to be. However, it is an intriguingly offbeat film.
1.An entertaining and funny film? Offbeat and creative?
2.The decor of Craig's house, its darkness, his workshop and the puppets, the animals in the house? The contrast with the skyscraper and the seventh and a half floor and its low ceilings? The dinginess and mud of the tunnel and the New Jersey Turnpike? The world of affluence of apartments and restaurants for Malkovich himself? A complex New York-US world?
3.The photography and its different styles - especially for the puppets, the puppet performances and the Schwarzes' house? The special effects? The musical score?
4.The title and the focus on Malkovich as a celebrity, the range of photos, the recapping of his career? And the irony of his career being sent up - his being mistakenly thought of as being a jewel thief in a film, the taxi driver not knowing him, people meeting him not knowing him? Malkovich being a good sport? As an actor playing himself and playing Craig and other characters within him? The irony of his being a carrier of all those people for the rest of his life - with some lost in his subconscious (as the two women were visualised running through it and seeing the echoes of his unhappy childhood and growing up, his being mocked and visualising what was repressed in his subconscious)? Being John Malkovich and the effect on Craig on his first journey, on Lottie and her transformation, on the range of people who take the trip, on Maxine and her relationship with Lottie and Craig? The theme of being oneself and wanting to be someone else?
5.Craig and his puppeteering skills, John Cusack's intensity, his work, making the puppets, the performances and the destruction of the room (and the face of the puppet being Cusack's)? His Eloise and Abelard performance in the street and its lewdness and the child watching? The later dramatising of his relationship with Maxine via the puppets?
6.The contrast with Lottie, her animals, Elijah and his traumas, psychoanalysis (and the humour of Lottie being put in the cage by Craig and his visualising his psychotherapy and overcoming his trauma and letting her escape? Animals and care? No children?
7.The advertisement for a job, Craig's need to get some money, visiting the seventh and a half floor, his being helped to it, the low ceilings, the humour of everybody crouching, the interview with the secretary and her not being able to understand him and putting words in his mouth? Mr Lester and the jokes, the interview and his skill in filing? The TV documentary and the spoof, the story of the building? Maxine and her nonchalance, Craig smitten by her, her interpretation? Going for a drink, a talk?
8.The visit to the Lester home, the meal, his lecherous touch, Lottie looking for the restroom and finding the John Malkovich Memorial Room with the survey of photos from his life? Her later going to Lester for an explanation, and everything being revealed about the people who travel from one body to another?
9.Craig's discovery of the tunnel and its effect, Lottie going and being in the shower, the effect on her sexuality, transsexuality, infatuated with Maxine? Meeting Maxine at home, in the office, the advances? Maxine and her response to Lottie within John Malkovich, setting Malkovich up, his being persuaded to go, her calling him Lottie? His continually being occupied? Charlie Sheen's visit and their talk - and the later visit of the balding Sheen?
10.The business and its profit, the range of characters and each hooked on going into the tunnel? Craig and his being hooked on the business, Lottie and her being hooked in her infatuation with Maxine, Maxine only wanting to meet Lottie within John Malkovich?
11.Malkovich himself and the effect, seeing him go in the taxi, the rehearsals of Richard III? His infatuation with Maxine, the relationship? His following her, finding the tunnel, his own journey - and finding John Malkoviches everywhere and the comic effect of this?
12.Malkovich becoming Craig? His becoming a puppeteer, the career change, his agent, Sean Penn and other celebrities commenting on it? The performance of the puppet in the ballet? The marriage, the relationship between and Craig? Her pregnancy?
13.The countdown to everybody going into Malkovich on his 44th birthday, the kidnapping of Maxine, the phone call, Craig finally being persuaded to come out - and everybody going in? The irony of Maxine and Lottie looking after the new baby?
14.The seven years passing, the two mothers at the beach, the baby - and the revelation that Craig was in the baby?
16.The blend of the surreal, the flip and the profound? Identity, dreams? Being other and not oneself and the consequences?
