cheap premise taken to dizzying heights

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2003)

*** Spoilers Ahead ***
I think there's a lot of latitude in how one can "take" this movie. I have a friend who felt ripped off by the lesbian plot angle. I pointed out to him that the angle in which Cusack's character gets to use Malkovich's prestige to push puppetry up to and over the edge was sheer brilliance; and he had to admit that that did rather salvage the central theme from a purely puerile development. Then he pointed out the gulf between the otherworldly "wackiness" of the first half of the movie and the later abandonment of that particular brand of surreality for the relatively "serious" feel of the last half. That was an inconsistency in the film that I guess I have to cop to.
At any rate, I still thought it was worth watching; a very exciting, fun, well-written, well-acted, entertaining movie, and not a little thought-provoking. The most amazing thing about the movie is that it takes a old worn out theme (metempsychosis; transmigration of souls) and breaths real new life into it.
Check it out.