Being John Malkovich
Some
films are blessedly unclassifiable. I
could hazard calling “Being John Malkovich” an ontological black comedy,
the nature of being that is explored here specifically being John Malkovich. This eccentrically original techno-fantasy directed by Spike Jonze
and scripted by Charlie Kaufman resembles Kafka as interpreted by Monty
Python. We begin with an unemployed puppeteer
in Manhattan, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack as a pathetic sad-sack) living
in an animal menagerie with his wife, Lottie (frizzy-haired Carmen Diaz,
decidedly non-perky and non-blonde).
When not working in a pet store, she is tending to her various
adopted birds, reptiles and mammals, including a chimp undergoing psychoanalysis. Forced by economic and domestic vicissitudes,
Craig finally bows to the inevitable and answers a want ad seeking a file
clerk with “nimble fingers.”
He makes his way to Floor 7-1/2 of
an ancient office building (quite a journey in itself), which houses Lester
Corporation, a firm with low overhead and low ceilings to match. Stooping beneath the five-foot high ceiling
and climbing through dwarf-sized doors, he is hired after a deranged interview
with Dr. Lester (a wonderfully unhinged Orson Bean, looking well preserved
after his years of sitting in an orgone box—remember Me and the Orgone?) Mary Kay Place has a delicious role as Lester’s
linguistically challenged executive assistant. Fellow survivors of the absurdist purgatory
of office temp work should find a grim but satisfying glee in the demented,
stooped-over world of Lester Corporation. I kept expecting to see John
Cleese come slouching sideways through a doorway at any moment.
Craig’s filing tedium is relieved by the presence of Maxine (Catherine
Keener), who alternately inflames and extinguishes Craig’s passion, pulling
his strings with cold relish. One
day Craig discovers a tiny door behind a filing cabinet.
He enters the tunnel beyond, is sucked toward a white light, and
finds himself . . . in the mind of John Malkovich.
After fifteen minutes of sharing John Malkovich’s morning toast
and coffee (seeing as if through a looking-glass and hearing as if underwater),
he finds himself dumped ignominiously on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Revealing his secret to Maxine, she
realizes the true significance of this portal, and immediately begins
selling tickets. In this age of celebrity worship and hunger to find,
change or exchange identities, there is no shortage of people thrilled
to pay $200 to spend fifteen minutes being John Malkovich, reading the
newspaper or ordering towels over the phone.
Even a semi-famous, quasi-celebrity like John Malkovich will do.
From here, the film leads us through
one existential wormhole after another as Craig, Lottie and Maxine intersect
within John Malkovich and in the world, mixing and matching identities,
genders, and various shifting triangles therein. Along the way, we are treated (or subjected)
to a world of John Malkovichs, a tour of his subconscious, and so on. But I don’t want to spoil the reader’s fun.
Jonze and Kaufman claim they never
really considered anyone but John Malkovich, in this first feature film
for both of them. The script began
with a real-life triangle and mutated into its present form. The subject of John Malkovich makes some sense, as he is an anonymous
celebrity, known but not quite famous beyond the film world, and more
reclusive or at least evasive then the average actor. He is a vessel into which non-celebrities can pour their ideas of
the nature about being a celebrity.
Spike Jonze, born Adam Spiegel (a
relative of the Spiegel catalog family), at age 29 has established a reputation
as an innovative, kinetic director of skateboard and other videos, short
documentaries, and MTV, sweeping up three prizes for Fatboy Slim’s “Praise
You” at last September’s MTV Video Awards.
Jonze is a reclusive celebrity in his own right (Charlie Kaufman
is another virtually unknown quantity.)
Avoiding interviews (once sending a friend in his place), when
cornered Jonze tends to become either verbally catatonic or casually invents
stories and confirms rumors, pranking his reputation and nouveau celebrity
status. After taking on various identities in his videos,
he recently performed in his first feature film role, as Private Conrad
Vig in “Three Kings.” Last spring
having married Sofia Coppola (daughter of Francis); his days of obscurantism
may be coming to an end.
Jonze and Kaufman manage to begin
with an original oddball premise and succeed in not dropping the ball,
instead throwing it back and forth in bizarre pass patterns, never quite
losing the spirit of fun in the play of ideas.
What would happen if John Malkovich himself went through his own
portal? How many alien personas
can his being incorporate? Who
is in control, who possesses whom? These
are some of the questions they pose, without ever succumbing to deadly
seriousness.
If you are ready for something completely
different, check out this existential screwball comedy.
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posthoc@posthoc.com