Overall Rating
  Awesome: 70.16%
Worth A Look: 13.57%
Average: 7.75%
Pretty Bad: 3.1%
Total Crap: 5.43%
19 reviews, 144 user ratings
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| Being John Malkovich |
by Scott Weinberg
"Something you don't see every day at the movies: Vision"
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Other than covering the basic plot in a rudimentary fashion, I refuse to expound upon anything that may detract from your own experience with this movie. That's not to say you'll necessarily love it, but it's one that you should see with no preconceived notions. Rarely do modern movies truly surprise, and shock is not the same as surprise. (Not even close, really.) How much you will enjoy Being John Malkovich depends on your own view of what celebrity is. If you're a big movie fan, however, I'm willing to bet you'll get a real kick out of this one.I'll briefly take you through my thought processes as I watched this strange and fascinating movie:
A-John Cusack is one of America's most consistently entertaining actors. He's funny, he's real, we've watched him give good performances since he was a teen, without any type of Rob Lowe or Charlie Sheen silliness. Recall his performances in Say Anything..., The Sure Thing, Eight Men Out, The Grifters, Stand By Me, Money for Nothing, Pushing Tin, City Hall. OK, so these weren't all great movies, but hell, he made Con-Air somewhat human and he was in Better Off Dead!!! What more does an actor need to do?
B-Cameron Diaz can actually act! Seriously. I was shocked as well. Being a heterosexual male, I find it difficult to see anything past her sky-blue angels' eyes and her adorbale nose and her firm, pert......aaaaaggghhhhhhhh. Sorry, but I guess that's why they 'freaked her up' a bit for her role here. She is almost unrecognizable and her performance blossoms because of it.
C-Catherine Keener is the coolest thing in a long time with her performance this movie. This relatively-unknown actress (Walking and Talking, Your Friends and Neighbors, Out of Sight, Living in Oblivion) almost steals the whole damn movie. Her Maxine is the focal point of every scene she's in, and it's because of her. She commands your attention every time she says something, and that's OK, because she has some of the best lines in a damn funny screenplay.
D-John Malkovich may not be the best actor alive today, but he can now claim to be the bravest. He bares a lot here, and I hear Oscar smooching his butt. Regarding his performance, the less said the better. Damn, you all know how cool Malkovich is. You don't need me telling you. I hope.
E-The plot is so brazenly and obviously ridiculous that you immediately feel in on the joke. Craig and Lotte are a middle-class married couple. He's an unemployed puppeteer and she runs an animal shop. (Which helps explain why their apartment looks like a petting zoo.) When Craig begins working as a filer at LesterCorp he meets Maxine. He then discovers a very small door in his office that leads to inside John Malkovich. You can see everything Malkovich sees for fifteen minutes. Boom. That's all you're getting out of me, and all that stuff happens in the first 20 minutes, so you can uncover your eyes now.
F-Spike Jonze (director) and Charlie Kaufman (screenwriter)should always make movies together. I found it mind-boggling that this movie wasn't written and directed by the same person. That sounds silly, but this movie is seamless. It's great to see when filmmakers are on the same page on what movie they want to make, and then succeed so well. Again, to divulge details is to rob you of your experience, but suffice to say you'll laugh when you should, and there's some real emotion and brains at work here.
G-Sometimes, less is more. Up to this point, you may have the impression that this is a perfect movie. It isn't. There are some unnecessary exposition scenes, and some of the humor is a little too broad at times when it seems restraint might more be in order. Maybe the final act sags a little here or there. But these are minor complaints when presented with something new and actually worth discovering. It's a movie that you'll want to hear other opinions about, and that's one of the best kinds.It has a subtle and honest flashlight shined right in the face of fame and celebrity, and it's up to you to judge what you see. It's really a brave and original movie, and I suspect it will also become a cult favorite. It's an intelligent and funny gift for moviegoers. Hell, I'd like to be Malkovich for fifteen minutes, wouldn't you?
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1352&reviewer=128
originally posted: 10/30/99 16:41:28
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USA
29-Oct-1999 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
26-Dec-1999
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