Neither Fiche nor Foul (Well, maybe a little)

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2000)

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH opens brilliantly, an unbelievably beautiful demonstration of puppeteering, which introduces us to Craig Schwartz (John Cusak), a tormented artist, far more capable of communicating his passions and angst via his puppets than directly to his wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz). Not too surprising, since Lotte is a fairly gross and dirty human being, who kisses and shares her beverages with her chimpanzee. In fact, the most unbelievable line in the movie is Lotte asking Craig to let her "take a shower.") Lotte doesn't strike me a person whom would ever want one. Perhaps due to this, Craig becomes immediately smitten when he meets Maxine (Christine Keener), a slightly slutty, fairly attractive gold digger, when he answers an ad for a "man with fast hands to do filing" at Dr. Lester's (Orson Bean). What Dr. Lester does is not all that clear, but the business apparently involves handling files for other companies. Interesting, because the offices are tiny, and not just because the place has "low overhead," being the 7 1/2 floor. Anyway, while filing, Craig discovers an opening behind one of the cabinets. Entering it, he discovers a portal into actor John Malcovich's psche. Up to this point the movie is a brilliant existentialist comedy (the best since BRAZIL). However, about two thirds of the way through the film, too much information is revealed, turning the film into fantasy/sci fi. Sorry, this movie doesn't have the budget for it. It makes an old OUTER LIMITS episode look like STAR WARS EPISODE 1 by comparison. It also calls into question everything which has proceeded. Fantasy/sci fi must be grounded in some form of plausibility. Companies which keep files either have huge climate controlled storage, use disks or, at least microfiche. Dirty or not, Diaz is still too desirable to make Craig's obsession with Maxine (Catherine Keener) all that convincing. Diaz is good in the part, but her casting throws the film way off. Either the producers should have cast Ellen DeGeneres in the part, or have cast Michelle Pfieffer as Maxine.
Ultimately, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH is a fairly amusing disappointment, much better in concept than execution.