Great idea, but misguided.

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2000)

I went to see Being John Malkovich with high expectations, but came out of the theater somewhat let down. The film has a great premise, good actors and it's full of original ideas and intelligent twists. Even bigger the disappointment, when after the first half the film loses it's thematic integrity, turning into a conceptual merry-go-round without a proper focus on anything.
As said before, the first half of Being John Malkovich is ingenious. Although based on an extxraordinary idea, the film doesn't just play with it, but instead uses it to explore themes such as identity, manipulation and celebrity. Strangely, much of this is thrown into the trashcan after we hear the explanation why there is a portal into Malkovich's mind (in my opinion, there was no need for explanation, and the one given was stupid and incoherent). After that the film is nothing more than a battle of who controls John Malkovich; it suffers the fate it kept avoiding for it's first half. The last 30 minutes of the film are nothing more than an intellectual masturbation with no direction nor deeper meaning. The ending, albeit strange, is unsatisfying and does little to save the movie.
A minor letdown is John Cusack. His literary lines and over-the-top acting would work well if Being John Malkovich were just a comedy. But when he tries to play the tragic character and display inner conflicts he simply isn't credible. This is hardly Cusack's fault, though; the dialogue, the characters and their emotional reactions are not crafted in a believable way (the only exception being John Malkovich himself). Whether this is deliberate or not, it ruins much of the films dramatic tension.
Despite all this criticism I still kind of liked Being John Malkovich, mainly for its clever themes and original way of approaching them. If American cinema is going into this direction, I'm not complaining.
Rating: **½ (out of ****)