Being John Malkovich

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Being John Malkovich
Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell

Because mainstream Hollywood lives on a diet of "high concept" movies (every book on screenwriting published since 1980 explains how important it is to be able to summarize your movie's idea in 5 to 7 words) it is envigorating to see "high concept" taken out and shot!

Credit first time screenwriter Charles Kaufman and first time director Spike Jonze with subverting the genre while making it shine.

Scraggly Craig Schwartz (John Cusak) is an unsuccessful puppeteer (the only successful one within living memory was Jim Henson, wasn't it?) whose wife Lotte (if you can imagine a scraggly Cameron Diaz) suggests that he might need to seek temporary employment until this puppeteering thing picks up.

Kaufman and Jonze have followed all of the Hollywood rules to this point. They have cast their protagonist in an oddball profession, living in an apartment (far too large for a couple of their means) with a host of animals including a chimpanzee!
cusak

By giving us a glimpse of Schwartz's work in the film's opening sequence, however, we begin to understand why our hero is passionate about puppetry and frustrated that the world doesn't recognize him.

To go one step further, Kaufman and Jonze have created a successful puppeteer to taunt Schwartz. While watching TV, he witnesses his nemesis directing an army of puppeteers manipulating a sixty-foot Emily Dickinson marionette performing "The Belle of Amherst."

Cameron Diaz "The Belle of Amherst" is a one-woman play by William Luce that reached the pinnacle of its popularity when a TV adaptation starring Julie Harris was shown on PBS as part of a pledge drive in 1976. The image of a sixty foot Emily Dickinson puppet is, to be sure, a good visual joke, but for anyone imagining the absurdity of that sixty-foot marionette performing that text, well...it's a treat. To Kaufman's credit, this is not the most obscure reference in the film.

If you are at all put off by this esoteric reference, even if you don't have a clear mental picture of who exactly John Malkovich is, don't be. Nobody in the movie really knows who he is. I'm just illustrating the hyper-reality of the movie's absurd back story that makes the "high concept" story, of a portal into a relatively famous actor's consciousness, all the more delightful.

"Being John Malkovich" is a tongue-in-cheek "Wizard of Oz" or "Star Wars" earning its stripes for taking us to places we have never been and catching us up in the reality of that world.

As in those wonderful fantasies, it is the characters' very human reactions to fantastic circumstances that gives the film its strength. When Craig tells Lotte about the portal she wants to try it out. When he tells co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener) about it, she wants to sell tickets.

This wonderful film enters a-movie-to-see's top 100 at number 16.

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	Being John Malkovich Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell Because mainstream Hollywood lives on a diet of "high concept" movies (every book on screenwriting published since 1980 explains how important it is to be able to summarize your movie's idea in 5 to 7 words) it is envigorating to see "high concept" taken out and shot! Credit first time screenwriter Charles Kaufman and first time director Spike Jonze with subverting the genre while making it shine. Scraggly Craig Schwartz (John Cusak) is an unsuccessful puppeteer (the only successful one within living memory was Jim Henson, wasn't it?) whose wife Lotte (if you can imagine a scraggly Cameron Diaz) suggests that he might need to seek temporary employment until this puppeteering thing picks up.
Kaufman and Jonze have followed all of the Hollywood rules to this point. They have cast their protagonist in an oddball profession, living in an apartment (far too large for a couple of their means) with a host of animals including a chimpanzee!
	By giving us a glimpse of Schwartz's work in the film's opening sequence, however, we begin to understand why our hero is passionate about puppetry and frustrated that the world doesn't recognize him.
To go one step further, Kaufman and Jonze have created a successful puppeteer to taunt Schwartz. While watching TV, he witnesses his nemesis directing an army of puppeteers manipulating a sixty-foot Emily Dickinson marionette performing "The Belle of Amherst."
	"The Belle of Amherst" is a one-woman play by William Luce that reached the pinnacle of its popularity when a TV adaptation starring Julie Harris was shown on PBS as part of a pledge drive in 1976. The image of a sixty foot Emily Dickinson puppet is, to be sure, a good visual joke, but for anyone imagining the absurdity of that sixty-foot marionette performing that text, well...it's a treat. To Kaufman's credit, this is not the most obscure reference in the film.
If you are at all put off by this esoteric reference, even if you don't have a clear mental picture of who exactly John Malkovich is, don't be. Nobody in the movie really knows who he is. I'm just illustrating the hyper-reality of the movie's absurd back story that makes the "high concept" story, of a portal into a relatively famous actor's consciousness, all the more delightful. "Being John Malkovich" is a tongue-in-cheek "Wizard of Oz" or "Star Wars" earning its stripes for taking us to places we have never been and catching us up in the reality of that world. As in those wonderful fantasies, it is the characters' very human reactions to fantastic circumstances that gives the film its strength. When Craig tells Lotte about the portal she wants to try it out. When he tells co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener) about it, she wants to sell tickets. This wonderful film enters a-movie-to-see's top 100 at number 16.