A Madcap, Surreal
Study of the Meaning of Identity. Fun and Bizarre.
The title itself stirs curiosity, and then of course, the cast with
John Cusack playing Craig Schwartz, Cameron Diaz playing Lotte Schwartz,
and Malkovich as himself makes this film quite irresistible.
We are quickly taken into one of those off the edge, or maybe just
before jumping off the edge, experiences where the world of the characters
is crafted with the emphasis on their idiosyncratic, crazy lives. It’s
like listening to a joke that is so off the wall you have to laugh and, at
the same time, wince a bit that you are laughing.
Cusack and Diaz have been transformed beyond recognition.
For us, that’s not only a compliment to the make-up and hair artists,
but a testament to their ability to become new people as actors. John
Cusack plays a
scruffy, half-shaven puppeteer without a job. Cameron Diaz's Lotte has turned their
apartment into a zoo, which includes a dog, a bird, a chimp who is suffering from
the post traumatic stress disorder related to a childhood trauma, and more.
The capture of the chimp and beating of his parents are depicted as he
"remembers" the event.
In a funny scene, the chimp is walking over the kitchen counter, while
the two are preparing dinner. She gathers the chimp into her arms like an
infant, looks her husband in the eye and asks is they could have a baby.
It is hilarious to imagine a baby added to this madhouse.
The laughs come from physical comedy, absurd situations, and a series
of ironic one-liners, most poking fun at our inability to cope with our
relationship identities.
Being John Malkovich abounds with surreal moments. After the chaos
of their private life, we are taken to Craig’s new work place on floor
7½ (the
half floor between 7 and 8), where you get off by pushing the emergency
stop button on the elevator, and then plying the doors open with a
crowbar. The ceilings are so low, you have to bend over to walk, and the
people range from weird to weirder. Craig finds an A type, manipulative,
rejecting, cynical woman to fall for, but Maxine (Catherine Keener)
will have nothing to do
with him until he discovers a strange portal that takes him straight into
the head of John Malkovich. Craig sees through Malkovich’s eyes, feels
through his body, is him for 15 minutes, and then gets thrown out in the
ditch by the New Jersey Turnpike. That is one of the funniest scenes in the movie that
gets repeated many times, and each time gets even funnier. People just
drop out of the sky right into weeds and dirt, and then stumble in
different states of exhilaration.
They all become fixated by being John Malkovich, mainly because being him
allows them to have the kind of contact with each other that they are
incapable of under normal circumstances. While possessed, John Malkovich
takes on the characteristics of the others and is himself becoming a bit
mad. Both Lotte and Craig are in love
or at least in lust with Maxine, and they take turns jumping into
Malkovich to have sex with her. Maxine doesn’t want to have anything to
do with either of them romantically until they are Malkovich. Events get
even stranger when Craig decides to permanently remain in Malkovich in
order to be with Maxine. As an aside, Malkovich ditches acting to become a
famous puppeteer.
Being John Malkovich presents hysterically funny notions about our
fascination with altered identities, and craving to be someone else whom
we envy from a distance because they are rich, or famous, or beautiful, or
spiritual, or free, or different, or anything that we are not. Oh, if only
we were someone else, our lives would be better.
The underlying, profoundly dramatic power of gender themes could have
been handled in more elucidating ways. On the other hand, sometimes, it is
enough that we are able to laugh and through that understand just how
confusing our sexuality can be.
