The first really intelligent comedy I've seen in years!

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 1999)

The first time I saw a trailer for this movie, I knew it was going to be something special. The film itself is nothing short of brilliant. It's fresh, funny, surreal, appealing, and intelligent. In a day when the big-grossing comedies are more likely to be gross than big, this is a welcome change.
John Cusak is really marvelous, in that instead of his usual clipped and polished look, he is bedraggled and pathetic... but retains his appeal. Catherine Keener gives a wonderful comic performance, using throwaway lines, and even the odd gesture, to pull belly-laughs out of the audience. John Malkovitch is a great sport, willing even to poke fun at the fact that, while he is a superb actor, he's not all that well known.
The stars of this movie, though, are the director and the screenwriter. I've always thought that the stage was a better medium than film for the truly surreal, because in the theatre, actors can rely more on the participation of the audience to fill in the blanks. Film is a much more literal medium, so the burden is on the director to present an image that answers questions as quickly as they are posed.
Jonze transcends this convention, allowing the actors to tell a rather bizarre story, while demanding that the audience pull its own weight. I was totally drawn in, and I loved every minute of it. Usually a story this unconventional requires a lot of special effects to be credible, but here they are at a minimum. Almost anyone these days can make a fantasy film out of digital artistry, expensive sets, and bad acting, but it takes a great director and a stellar cast to make a first-rate fable with just actors and a camera.