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There is no escaping the fact that this may well be one of
the most bizarre movies that I have ever seen. And it is mostly
pretty brilliant which is amazing given that it could so easily
have turned out terribly.
Th plot itself is crazy. John Cusack is Craig Schwartz a brilliant
but unemployed puppeteer. He lives with his crazy wife Lotte
(Cameron Diaz) and her menagerie of loony pets. Eventually he
decides to get a job. He finds one at filing compant LesterCorp
which is situated on a midget sized floor between the 7th and
8th floors of an office block.At work he has to deal with his
doddery 105 year old boss and his hard of hearing secretary.
He also starts to lust after a coworker Maxine (Catherine Keener
in an Oscar nominated role) who self assuredly allows Craig
to flirt with her while continually letting him know that he
has no chance with her. All this happens in the first twenty
minutes, before the REALLY weird stuff starts happening.
When one his files annoyingly falls behind a cabinet, Craig
stumbles across a magical door that is actually a portal into
actor John Malkovich's brain. There he can see the world through
Malkovich's eyes for 15 minutes before being trans dimensionally
ejected out onto the New Jersey turnpike. This discovery leads
onto all sorts of misadventures that end up changing Craig's
life completely and not surprisingly has a bit of an impact
on Malkovich's life as well.
One of the great thing about this movie is that it is truly
unpredictable. It does not follow any rules or formulae so you
have no idea what lunacy is going to happen next. The acting
is superb throughout with special mention to John Malkovich
for having the balls to be directly involved in this self parody
of himself. John Cusack shows again what an underrated actor
he is, while Cameron Diaz shows that she does not just exist
to look dazzling on screen by beind almost unrecognisable in
a frumpy frizzy wig. Also look out for cameos from a handful
of other stars such as Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn.
As well as being wonderfully entertaining, director Spike Jonze
and writer Charlie Kaufman also manage to raise a host of moral
and social questions about a range of issues from the important
to the trivial. To what degree does a celebrity's life belong
to his or her fans? What are the things that make us individuals?
What would a woman do with a penis if she had one? What would
it be like to live forever?
Open your mind and see this movie. You may never see anything
like it again.
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