Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in the mind of a celebrity? No, let's rephrase that. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else for a while? Do you ever wonder what it would be like to control someone else's mind? Ever wonder if life can be changed if you entered someone else's mind? Sure it is easy to imagine doing this, but can this actually be experienced? The answer to this final question is: yes it can. If you watch Being John Malkovich, you certainly can. However, be warned that although the film may present something very different to its audience, there are a lot of flaws associated with this innovative idea for the film.

The film is about Charles Schwartz (John Cusack), a young, struggling puppeteer who lives in an animal-filled apartment with his animal-loving wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz). Because of the struggles he is faced with, Charles is eventually forced to find himself another job. He applies for a job as a filing clerk, which is on the notorious 7½ floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. The floor is a very odd place with low ceilings and Craig soon meets the very peculiar secretary (Mary Kay Place) at the company he wants to work at. He also meets the company's even more bizarre chairman, Dr. Lester (Orson Bean), who is somewhat convinced that he has a speech impediment, despite the fact he has no speech impediment. After seeing how fast he is in filing letters alphabetically, Lester hires Charles and immediately sends him on the orientation of the 7½ floor of the building.

During orientation, Charles meets Maxine (Catherine Keener), an attractive female employee of another company that also works on the same floor. Charles immediately starts hitting on her, but being the apparent loser that he is, he fails on every attempt.

All that soon changes when he accidentally drops a file behind one of the many cabinets in his office. He pulls the cabinet away to try and get the file, but notices a door that leads to some secret passageway. Charles is quickly pulled into this portal and discovers that he has entered the mind of John Malkovich (played by, and this is the big surprise, John Malkovich) and is being John Malkovich. However, after 15 minutes of being in John's head, Craig is spat out and lands by the New Jersey Turnpike.

Now excited by his new discovery, he tells both Maxine and Lotte about it. Lotte immediately wants to experience this, while Maxine convinces Craig to turn this into a business, in which people pay $200 to be in Malkovich's head for 15 minutes. However, when Lotte experiences being in Malkovich, it unleashes sexual desires that have been suppressed inside Lotte all this time and during a date Malkovich has with Maxine, Lotte starts to fall in love with Maxine (while in Malkovich's head), which irates Craig. And this premise of jealousy sets up the rest of the film.

The idea for the film is certainly a very innovative one and also a very challenging one to portray, particularly when inside Malkovich's head. However, the film's cinematographers do a brilliant job of allowing the audience to experience what it is like to be in John's head, using the camera as if it is John's two eyes. The audience get to feel as if they are somebody else and this is truly a film experience to remember.

Other than that, the concept of being able to control someone else is an interesting concept in itself. Craig, being a puppeteer, is given the opportunity to control John Malkovich as if it is one of his puppets. It is perhaps for this reason why I thought that this film was more of a fantasy film than it was a dark comedy in the sense that every person has, at one point in their life, imagined what it would be like to be someone else. Charlie Kauffman, the writer of the film's script, has certainly created the experience of what it is like to be another person and delivers something completely different for the audience to see here or what I would like to call "the modern day fantasy film".

When I say this film is more of a fantasy film than a comedy, I am not saying that the film is not a comedy. There are a lot of elements of dark humor in the film, most notably the odd nature of the 7½ floor and the people on it. Also, watching Malkovich being controlled by the various characters in the film is also funny to watch. It may be very weird, but it is humorous.

However, Kauffman's script begins to falter in the second half of the film where the tensions in the relationships between Maxine, Lotte and Craig start to look like something ripped out of a typical Hollywoodized romantic thriller. The jealous feelings the characters feel and the suppressed love that each of the characters suffer from cause the film's downfall and instead of being different, the film ends up looking like something every person has seen before.

It is also from here that the rest of the film crumbles. The characters become less and less plausible as the film moves on and also become to detach themselves from their original selves into mere characterizations of characters we have seen in romantic thrillers. Because it focuses so much on the romantic tensions, the film becomes less and less humorous and the film loses its fantastical feel. The ending leaves the audience unsure as to what type of film this really is.

As for the acting in the film, it is generally decent. John Cusack does well as the loser Craig, showing the hopelessness of his character very well. Catherine Keener is also solid in her role as Maxine bringing an aura of sexiness around her. As for Cameron Diaz, I did not like her role and the way she portrayed it. She seems to act similarly in every role she plays and this role further shows the limits in her acting. Orson Bean is alright as Dr. Lester. Mary Kay Place, however, steals the show with a brilliant performance as Floris, Lester's secretary. She is just funny and her timing is spot-on throughout the film. There are also many cameo appearances in the film from many famous Hollywood actors, but the most memorable one is by far Charlie Sheen, who plays himself and acts as a bit of a counsellor to Malkovich.

As for Malkovich himself, he was certainly brave to parody himself (random characters keep making fun of him by not remembering the correct films he starred in), but in some parts, I just felt he lacked energy. Whether this was part of the film or not, I do not know, but from the films I have seen, he certainly does seem more eccentric and as bland as he can be, he does seem to have a bit more character than he does in this film. Otherwise, he did well in this film (particularly during the "Malkovich, Malkovich" scene).

As for Spike Jonze's direction, it was, like the script, great in the first half of the film, but slipped during the second half of the film. I felt that Jonze lost a bit of pacing during the second half of the film and it cost him during the film's climactic ending. After losing some of his pacing during the second half of the film caused me to grow more detached from the characters than earlier in the film. But, as I said earlier, this film is a challenge. Jonze has been given a difficult film to portray on the screen and at least he is able to keep the audience attached during most of the film.

I rented the Region-4 DVD of this film, which features a video featurette on Malkovich that is in the film, along with the 7½ floor orientation, TV trailers, the theatrical trailer, notes on the cast and film makers, a collection of photos from the film and an extremely bizarre interview with Spike Jonze where he is clearly sick and unwell. These are all somewhat futile (nothing on the making of the film) and I would only recommend this if you want to get a kick out of seeing John Malkovich acting strangely (then again, he always does act strangely). The film can be seen in English, French or German, along with English, French, German and Dutch subtitles.

The 3-star rating I have given the film may seem a bit low, but I think that given the film's flaws and loss of momentum, it is the only rating that I can give. But, I think every film viewer should watch this film, because it is certainly different to anything any film viewer has seen before. And for that reason alone, I recommend this film.

Thanks for reading the review.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD