Brilliant but ultimately flawed

Rating: 8/10 (20 September 2001)

I gave this movie 8/10, but I have to admit being a little disappointed when I finally got around to seeing it.
The first half is almost flawless - a dystopian Kafkaesque world, designed seemingly by Terry Gilliam, inhabited by off-kilter characters that adds to the general air of strangeness and unreality. Striding through it all is an unrecognisable Cameron Diaz, and the (once again brilliant) John Cusack. Yet then it seemed that the initial promise somehow slips away- the film shifts its focus from Cusack's character to Malkovich himself, and the less screen time that Cusack gets, the more the film loses its momentum to (what I considered to be) an unsatisfactory finale. There also seemed an element of over explanation in the final scenes - why not just leave the audience wondering?
Still, a brave and original piece of film making all round- script & direction. Would that more films took risks like this did.