Interesting premise, but...

Rating: 5/10 (25 June 2000)

Well, tonight I finally watched this much-talked-about film that I have been dying to see, and I am disappointed to say...I was slightly disappointed. I love John Malkovich in anything, and Catherine Keener is one of my favorite character actresses. But the first hour of the movie was sooo ploddingly slow, I was itching to turn it off. I'm glad I didn't because it got much better in the last hour. (I realize a lot of the posts here say the opposite, that the first hour was better, but I beg to differ. To each his own, I guess). I myself enjoyed the in-jokes with Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, etc. John Malkovich himself was great, as usual, and though John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener were good, too, I still don't see the need for Catherine's Oscar nomination. It was an excellent idea and some of the bits were great--the trip Cameron and Catherine took through Malkovich's subconscious (you have to wonder if those were real experiences of his youth!) was suberb, and the flashback that Elijah the chimp had to the jungle and his parents being tied up was very good and touching, as well.
The end could have been tied up a little bit better, i.e., where was the portal to enter Emily's head? All in all it was entertaining but there could have been a little more to hold my attention in the first half. It was thought-provoking, but they could have done more with the concept instead of focusing on that bizarre love triangle.