I think that there is a general desire by filmmakers to transport the audience into a different world. That is the novelist's job, and what is a filmmaker but a visual novelist? I certainly look to film as a portal into a world which is not my own, that I may escape from the humdrum world which I am tethered to and simply breathe, or be left breathless, that I may forget my humdrum world. Writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze seem to take this idea literally in one of the most visually inventive films made in the 1990s.
What would you do if you could leave your life of monotonousness and enter the mind of somebody else? And not just anybody--John Malkovich. He certainly wouldn't be the first person on my list of people to be, I'll admit, but a person of prestige, with money, notoriety, and a seeming lack of care is appealing nonetheless. How much would you spend to entirely leave your life for a brief, but wonderful 15 minutes? $200? More importantly, what are the moral an ethical ramifications of such an action?
Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is not an everyman. Well...I suppose he is an everyman, in that he leads a life going nowhere, with no job, a moderately pretty wife, and seemingly unfulfilled aspirations. He is a puppeteer, however, and puppeteers are not everymen. Puppeteers want something more from a medium which does not lend itself to an adoring audience.
Living with his ever-patient wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz), and her lovely chimp, Craig meanders about day to day, putting on provocative, artsy and at time lewd puppet shows, until he is convinced to find a real job. I didn't really want him to, after seeing an incredible opening puppet sequence which was mystifying and intensely beautiful. But he does get a job as a file clerk in a peculiar office building on the 7 1/2 floor, which has tiny ceilings and a slew of bemusing if eccentric characters, including a speech therapist secretary who can't understand what anybody says, a lecherous boss, and the evil Maxine (a terrific Catherine Keener).
It is in this office that Craig falls in love with the icy, cruel and self-absorbed Maxine, and also where he finds a little door leading literally into the mind of John Malkovich (hilariously played by himself). The imagination and visual inventiveness of the conception and execution of this sort of premise is astonishing; it is simply not the type of film that should have been made--let alone seen--and yet it is incredibly well done.
What comes out of such a plot I won't reveal, for that would ruin half the entertainment of a film which is so far out of the box that I'm not even sure there was a box to begin with. It was almost frustrating that I continuously felt I was latching on to what was happening only to be thwarted by another insanely inventive twist. This is the type of film where it's best not to guess what is going to happen, but simply sit back and enjoy the labors of people who had far too much fun doing what they were doing.
The film never gets around to answering some of the tremendous questions it poses for its audience: what kind of responsibility do we have with the power to enter another body? Is it in human nature to sacrifice the liberty of another for our own pleasure? And one that it poses directly to the audience, what is the nature of the self? I don't dwell on this though, simply because it is a marvel of the creative spirit, unleashed unabashedly unto the world, hoping that the audience will be amused, but not tethered by the fear that it won't be. It is funny in its being and doesn't have to try, and it's quite clear that Jonze recognized that in Kaufman's script.
This is a movie to get lost in, to immerse yourself in the perplexities of the human psyche and enjoy the thrill of that dark recess of the mind which wishes it was something else. I can't say much more to describe what goes on in this movie without spoiling suprises. All I can say is that it left my mouth agape throughout, with "What the fuck?" written on my forehead.
3.5/4
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