Puppeteer finds a door leading inside a celebrated actor's head

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2005)

Certainly, this film is an intriguing, surrealistic piece: it kicks off, after a dramatical puppet play, as a down-to-earth independent low-budget movie, with an unrecognizable John Cusack playing the role of an unemployed puppeteer (Craig Schwartz), who in turn is married with a naive pet shop clerk (Lotte Schwartz) impersonated by a totally transformed Cameron Diaz in what could be described as her most disgusting character to date (although charming in her own way).
Then, as Craig follows the path to applying for a job in floor 7Â½ of an office building, the picture starts to draw a hilarious turn in a surrealistic, almost Monty Python dialog that reaches its peak in the screening of the flat's history. Later on, things start to get creepier as the newly-employed Mr. Schwartz finds a secret door that leads to John Malkovich's head, with unexpected consequences involving the Schwartzs and an attractive employee in the same floor named Maxine (Catherine Keener), or a highly laughable and meta-linguistic sequence when one dares to cross the door to its own perception (no pun intended).
All in all, this is a very original and amazing movie which starts out pretty well but, in the end, it lacks a tad more of rhythm and gets a little repeating, but in no way predictable and unparalleled in Hollywood standards, indeed.