Being John Malkovich (1999) - film review

Unable to find work as a puppeteer, Craig Schwartz ends up as a filing clerk in a New Jersey office whose ceilings are so low he cannot stand up straight.  With his marriage to Lotte failing, he takes an immediate attraction to co-worker Maxine, but she finds him physically repulsive.  One day, Craig discovers a hidden door behind a filing cabinet which, bizarrely, takes him into the head of the actor John Malkovich.  For a full fifteen minutes, Craig experiences all of the actor’s sensory perceptions - he effectively becomes John Malkovich - but then he is ejected and lands on the verge beside a busy road.  When she hears about this Lotte can hardly wait to try out the experience for herself.  On a whim, Maxine rings up Malkovich and arranges a date, which just happens to coincide with Lotte’s trip insider the actor’s head.  Through Malkovich, Lotte fulfils her transsexual fantasies, making love to Maxine in the body of a man.  Craig is appalled when discovers that his wife has been cheating on him this way, but it gives him an idea.  He will enter Malkovich’s head and use his puppeteering skills to control him.  Not only will he win Maxine for himself, he will also fulfil his ambitions and become a world famous puppeteer, albeit in the body of John Malkovich...

Very probably the loopiest and most startlingly original comedy of the 1990s, Being John Malkovich starts with a ludicrously simple premise (the notion that you can get into the head of another person by climbing through a hole in a wall) and spins it into a mad metaphysical fantasy that is both deliriously funny and refreshingly novel.   As far as directing debuts come, Spike Jonze’s first directorial adventure is as impressive as any and makes the most of Charlie Kaufman’s mind-blowingly surreal screenplay.  Rather than get caught up in the philosophical implications of the film’s basic premise (which are pretty frightening if you stop to think about them), the film brushes these aside and does the right thing: to voraciously mine a rich untapped vein of insane jet-black comedy.

John Malkovich had a reputation as a serious actor before he (generously) agreed to appear in this film and, as a subtle caricature of himself, he shows a surprising flair for comedy.  The film certainly has done his career no harm and has served to raise his profile - although why anyone would actually want to be him is a mystery to me.  Being John Malkovich is not merely a superb off-the-wall comedy, it is also a very astute commentary on the way in which our society feeds on celebrities, like parasitic vermin, to compensate for the spiritual emptiness and lack of fulfilment that we find in our own lives.  Not content to be ourselves, we obsess over pop stars, actors, footballers, weather presenters, whatever, vicariously feeding off their glamorous, seemingly fulfilled lives.  The point of the film is that to live like this is to totally miss the point of existence - fulfilment cannot come second-hand, it must be sought by the individual, through his own experiences and efforts.   Being John Malkovich is as profound as it is inventively funny - a true cinematic one off.

© Alex Sullivan 2012

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