Creativity at its highest level

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2000)

A genius! A genius! A genius! This is what Spike Jonze is. His nomination for this year's Oscar as best director is more than deserved, and I can't understand why this amazing film that is "Being John Malkovich" wasn't nominated for best picture. Well, maybe that's because the Academy is too old-fashioned but, if they were, they wouldn't nominate "American Beauty", last year's best. In fact, "Being John Malkovich" is 99's second best, being only after "American Beauty" on my top 10 (note that I haven't seen "Magnolia" because it wasn't released in Brazil yet). So... let's talk about the movie!
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? What about a famous person? What about John Malkovich, even if it lasts only 15 minutes?
People can say everything they want about "Being John Malkovich", but conventional is the last thing it is. The story, about a puppeteer named Craig (John Cusack), who founds by chance in his office a portal to John Malkovich's head, has a wonderful surrealism. The screenplay is a explosion of originality, mixing delightful absurd elements with very, very funny comedy and some drama.
The film starts showing Craig's life with his weird wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz- you won't recognize her), who lives with an ape named Elijah (which has a childhood trauma), a dog, lots of birds, an iguana and other animals. He is a puppeteer and has no job. One day he finds one at the 7.5 (!) floor of a building, where he meets some strange people, as his boss, Dr. Lester (a 105 year old man), and a secretary named Floris, who makes confusion with words. His work colleague is the cold Maxine (Catherine Keener), for whom he falls in love. After he finds that portal to Malkovich's head, his life totally changes- for better or worse. Some weird and hilarious things will happen, including lesbian love and a menage-a-trois with two people. But everything gets more complicated when John Malkovich enters his own head (the most hilarious scene), and when Craig starts to control Malkovich as if he were one of his dolls. That's when the film starts to show its dramatic side. But it doesn't mean that "Malkovich" is irregular. Yes, it has a hilarious first one hour or some more and the last forty minutes are more serious if you look by a side. However, drama, comedy and fantasy are mixed very well, not resulting in a film full of gaps and skips as "Edtv".
Under a surreal story, writer Charlie Kaufman hides important messages and morals. All the characters are very well developed and the cast is just fantastic. John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and John Malkovich should have been nominated to the Oscar, but the great Catherine Keener was the only lucky one.
So watch "Being John Malkovich". It's the only thing I can say. It's weird, wild, funny, twisted, surprising, unusual and totally unpredictable. You shouldn't miss this one anyway.
(A perfect) 10/10!
Spike Jonze is a genius!