Brilliant!

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2008)

I adore this film and have watched over and over. It features two of my favourite actors - Johns' Cusack and Malkovich. The former gives a particularly deep and touching performance as the struggling puppeteer Craig Shwartz. He's a beautiful man and he captures the audiences imagination and sympathy. He's sensitive and dissatisfied with his life with his rather insensitive (at least to his needs) wife Lotte; played by Cameron Diaz, who is not an actress I've never rated very highly, though she is perfectly competent in this role. It is a film which offers the audience so many possibilities on a number of levels, from Craig's becoming captivated by Maxine a fellow employee at a most peculiar office Craig gets a job in early into the film. Much to his dismay any adulterous ambitions he initially has are rendered hopeless by the fact that Maxine has no interest in him as a suitor - is she MAD? Anyhow, Craig discovers by chance, a concealed hole in the wall of an office in work, which if you progress down this hole you end up inhabiting the the being of John Malkovich. After he convinces an unsurprisingly sceptical Maxine of this, she sees the commercial possibilities charging potential customers for fifteen minutes of John Malkovich. Although she herself never tests out the Malkovich experience, she soon, along with the still desperate for her Craig, to make it a success.
Craig's desire for Maxine and his realisation that she does not share his feelings is made all the more acute when, after meeting Lotte for the first times declares to be "smitten" with her. Poor, desperate Craig, what can he do? The object of his desire is taken with his wife and to make a more complication proposition, wants her when she is John, She tells Lotte, who makes an attempt to embrace. "Only as John." Craig is now very probably set never to gain Maxine and also to lose his wife.
He is desperate and as a result conspires to deceive Maxine by inhabiting John when she believes Lotte is the one pulling his strings. As an exceptionally gifted puppeteer, Craig manages to utilise his ability to manipulate and does succeed in being Malkovich, and eventually tells Maxine, who is by now pregnant with John/Lotte's baby, that it has been him all along. And so Craig is John and manages to turn John into a puppeteer. A puppeteer being a puppeteer being a puppeteer! Spectacular. Surely though, something so mind bendingly freaky can't go smoothly. Course not, and eventually Maxine releases it is Lotte simply being Lotte who she wants to be with. In the background of all these events involving the four principal characters, is Dr. Lester, Craigs employer, a 105 year old man, who, along with a select group of friends has no plans to die. THEY want to be John Malkovich too and have no intention of allowing Craig to thwart their plans. They make him agree to surrender his occupation of John by telling him they are holding his wife as security. This is untrue, she is with Dr. Lester and co having managed to escape from the pet chimpanzee's cage Craig had imprisoned her in, but she is there willingly and is even invited to join them in being Malkovich. It all goes at a terrific pace with a number of extraneous plot lines, such as earlier John becoming himself, or rather living his subconscious self during which he is in a smart restaurant in which everyone present is JM, the only words uttered are Malkovich and the only written words are Malkovich, which takes the form of a menu which lists every item as Malkovich. An amusing inclusion in this scene includes two female malkovichs, one of whom sings "Malkovich", repeatedly whilst seated on top of a piano.
The full horror of this has JM screaming his own name. Unsurprisingly is is thoroughly disturbed by this and once his time as himself is up he ends by threatening Craig with legal action if the portal to his being is not blocked up forever. It's funny but you clearly feel his terror and incomprehension at the situation. He knows when he is not acting independently but has hitherto not understood what was happening. The film concludes happily for everyone other than Craig. He leaves Malkovich, the aged Dr. Lester et al inhabit him and he appears not to be troubled by the situation as is shown in one of the last scenes where he greets an old Charlie Sheen, making his second appearance in the film where he plays a charming cameo role as himself. Lotte and Maxine, even after having taken several potshots and they have John's child to keep them company. She, seemingly, is a future vessel for further life greedy occupants. Brilliant. The very sad aspect in all of this is Craig being abandoned and alone. An essentially good man, he lost control of his feelings and ending up losing control of everything in a desperate attempt to be in control. I think John Cusack's portrayal of Craig is one of his finest roles to date. He really inhabits his character, please excuse the pun, and completely shines.
In conclusion, a quirky and fascinating film which has so much to say about human nature. Another nice touch was John's reference, whilst talking to Charlie Sheen at the end, to Gary Sinise, an old member of their Steppenwolf theatre company in Chicago. Do watch this film; it can't be spoiled by knowing how it develops, there is so much to it.