Amazing; not engaging

Rating: Null/10 (10 October 2000)

It certainly is one of the most unique and original movies you'll have seen in a while. I just feel it can't be termed a GREAT movie because it appeals far more to the intellect than your emotions, and I think a great movie has to have some emotional resonance - whether it stirs sympathy/empathy, or loathing. All the characters in BJM are essentially dislikable or pitiable, but their characterization/motivation is based in a fantastic situation and so far removed from life-like experience that you end up emotionally detached from the goings on.
What it has going for it: Unlike anything you've seen - a trippily absurd fantasy of a movie; a great comic performance by Malkovich himself, and a strong and sassy turn by Keener; some amazing cinematography, especially where the puppetry is involved; fun cameos; some truly hilarious moments - the falling bodies cracked me up every time, and I loved the street puppeteering sequence w/the lusting nun/monk.
What it has against it: Cusack's role, though competently acted, just doesn't fill the center of the movie. Granted that has much to do with his character (a puppeteer whose puppets are his outward expression of soul) - so in a way it's a testament to his good acting; it just feels a little weightless. The closest "empty" character I can think of is Chauncey Gardner in "Being There" (must be that "Being" thing)... a fine film/novel (Jerzy Kosinzski) about a shut-in simpleton whose only exposure to the outside world is via television, who is unwittingly thrust onto the streets and into the public eye - where his idiocy is mistaken for profundity.
As noted by other people, the whole concept of being thrust into someone else's consciousness could be made more interesting than the psycho-sexual drama that serves for the main plot in the second half of BJM.
Well ... that's my movie criticism for the day. Well worth renting - just doesn't quite live up to its potential, and is more intellectually stimulating than involving.