The exploited subconscious of a method actor...

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2000)

There are about a million comments here explaining what the plot of this movie is about so i'll just cut straight to my point.
Being John Malkovich uses some sharp and original wit to ease the audience into deep notions of the nature of the human mind, and the psyche of the entertainer. An actor, especially a method actor, is in the business of assuming identities -- letting fictional identities into their own head. This film shows us a world where this method is taken to the extreme and real people can actually get inside Malkovich's head. It ponders what affect these people might have on the actor's mind, and in turn how the experience affects each of these people.
Schwartz (John Cusack) might learn to control John Malkovich, but how much of John Malkovich seeps into Schwartz's mind in the process?
Was Lotti (Cameron Diaz) originally transexual or was this a mis-interpreted response to unfamiliar male emotions?
What happens to John Malkovich when he is pushed out of his own mind? Does he regress into the subconscious and if so is he really totally ineffectual there?
If the portal represents the subconscious then we are faced with questions regarding the nature of the mind and just how the psychological prying that is a part of everyday life (TV, conversations, music) might alter the development of the individual. Actors, by trade assumably, are sensitive to external mental symbolism and suggestion, so this film could be an analogy for the effect of the media impositions and social idolising of any actor.
The only flaws are a hyperactive, fragmented plot structure -- but this is also one of its good points so, go figure -- a fairly predictable ending (I guess they needed funding) -- and an eventual ignorance of the fate of Malkovich.
This is an intensely philosophical/psychological tragedy masked by a surreal and absurd sense of irony. If you didn't like this movie you were probably expecting either just a piss-take or a tome of knowledge. Take it for what it is -- whatever that is!