'Malkovich' is eye candy, in the least likely place

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 1999)

Being John Malkovich' is one of the most ingenious, creative, and bizarre movies that I've ever seen. There is never a tedious moment in the film. Charles Kaufman creates an utterly original heap of entertainment that makes Alice in Wonderland look like a teen flick. Whether you're laughing, or crying, the film will keep you on your toes.
The first few minutes are a little sluggish but you still find yourself intrigued by the bizarre camera work. John Cusack plays Craig Schwartz a deprived puppeteer who is an brilliant, yet sadly unknown puppet master. Schwartz doesn't think he needs a day job until he offends a little girl's father with one of his puppet shows, and gets punched square in the face. After that he realizes that he needs a day job to support his wife, and hopefully a future child.
Cusack's job interview leads to some of the funniest 20 minutes I have ever seen on screen. With dark, and intellectual comedy at it's best, it's one of those scenes were you just die laughing in the aisles.
Cusack's boss is old, senile, and thinks he has a speech impediment when actually he talks better than Cusack himself. He works on the 7 ½ floor where the ceiling raises 5 feet above the floor. It's a place were everyone has to bend over to walk. While filing one day Cusack drops a folder behind a file cabinet. While retrieving it he finds a small door that leads inside the brain of John Malkovich.
These minutes of entertainment never dumb down, or slow up. It just gets better and more surreal. You would expect them to run out of ideas; but they don't. The laughs come on stronger, and the movie bullets in a different direction.
Cusack ends up only being able to spend 15 minutes in Malkovich and afterwards gets dumped out by the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. He proceeds to tell his wife played by the beautiful Cameron Diaz, who in this movie looks appalling and utterly unattractive. She wants to try it, and what she ends up finding is not a portal within John Malkovich, but rather a mirror into her innermost desires. She finds her true self in another person's body.
Instead of using this portal to try to find what the significance of it is Diaz and Cusack use it to fulfill their sexual fantasies with Cusack's co-worker, played by the lovely Catherine Keener. However, it seems she is only attracted to them when they are within the body of Malkovich.
The plot spirals into many different directions at this point, and steers clear of comedy. It becomes a philosophical message, which is: The only way we can be who we truly are; is in the mask of someone else.

Being John Malkovich' could be considered the Truman Show' of 1999, only more imaginative, and bizarre. The film is so deep that it's poetic. Everything in the movie has a meaning, and represents a symbol for life.

John Cusack gives an first-rate performance. In the beginning you feel sorry for him. In the middle you hate him. At the end you feel sorry once for him more. Cameron Diaz clearly has made the transition from comedy to drama, and establishes herself as a future award winner.

The last words heard in the film are the words "Look Away" muttered by Cusack in a depressive state. However, you can't look away. You are so intrigued by the ending that you can't do anything but look intently at the film. This film deserves a standing ovation for what it has done for filmmakers. It tells them to think of every possibility. Hopefully we will see more original films like Malkovich' and less clichéd films like House on Haunted Hill' - Chris Sandberg
4 out of 4 stars