Original almost to the point of inaccessible, but what else do you want?

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2019)

The really surprising thing about this utterly original film is that it's not based on a novel. The premise, the dialogue, the tone and the switcheroo plot all appear to have come together fully-formed in this Charlie Kaufman screenplay, rather than adapted or distilled from a long and complex existing work. I got to a third in and found myself thinking, "I bet the novel's great, wonder who wrote it?"
It took me decades to get round to watching this, and I enjoyed it enormously. Cusack and Diaz are having a blast cast against type, and Keenan is a femme fatale of a type we've never seen before. In his intensity, Cusack seems to be channelling his sister Joan's up-tightness. In fact, I found myself thinking "who is he reminding me of here?" and it was Ros Mullins in 'School of Rock' (which came out wa-ay after this). Diaz has never been better, her self-realization post-Malkovich experience is hilarious and compelling, as is the three-way dinner date with Craig and Maxine.
In the surfeit of ideas - such as making Craig an unemployed puppeteer with nimble fingers ideal for filing, the history of Floor 7 and a half, and the transformation of Malkovich from actor to puppet maestro - inevitably there are some misses. The ending particularly disappoints, but hey, with such low overheads, they pass on the savings directly to you!
The film's extraordinarily 'meta' conceit, that John Malkovich plays John Horatio Malkovich, and also plays Craig Schwartz as John Horatio Malkovich is at once mind-bending and believable, but perhaps it could have been Tom Cruise after all. It's a good performance and a brave one, but apparently it all comes down to the way the syllables of 'Malkovich' sounded to Kaufman, and who are we to argue?
Glad the New Jersey Turnpike got a shout out in a film, are there any others where it features so prominently?