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| Movies,
Dan Wolff,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F4
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If the Coen brothers saw the script for this film they would probably pass it over for being too strange. Director Spike Jonze makes his debut feature film after countless innovative music videos for the likes of Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim and Bjork and somehow manages to bring his warped genius to the cinema.
The plot revolves around a struggling puppet master (John Cusack) who is so bored with his loser lifestyle and marriage to pet store owner (Cameron Diaz) that he gets a job as a filing clerk in a literally tiny office in New York. It is at work, behind a filing cabinet, that he finds a gateway that somehow leads into the mind of John Malkovich. The story doesn’t stop here. There’s so much in this film it’s just getting started. Cusack is also falling for a fellow office worker (brilliantly played by Sorpranos regular Catherine Keener) who in turn is falling for Cameron Diaz, but only when Diaz is in the mind and body of Malkovich.
Confused yet? Stick around as there is much, much more but that would spoil the many surprises (including some unexpected cameos). The cast are all excellent, in particular John Malkovich who continually is the brunt of a number of jokes, including a running gag about how no one can actually name any of his films.
The movie slips slightly in the middle and at times it may seem overlong. The sub-plot involving Cameron Diaz wanting a sex change after going through the gateway seems out of place, but is worth it after hearing her tell Cusack ''Don't stand in the way of my actualisation as a man.'' You never expected her to ever say that in a film!
By the end you will probably leave the cinema in a dazed state wondering what you have seen. Little is explained, but that would be missing the point. It does demonstrate that Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman are both unique and imaginative (if maybe slightly disturbed) filmmakers.
UK rating:
15
US rating:
R
Spike Jonze1999, US
John Cusack , Cameron Diaz , Catherine Keener , Orson Bean and John Malkovich
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