Being John Malkovich

It's rare that screenwriters become known as well as a director, but over twenty years ago Charlie Kaufman began a three-film run that made him an adjective (although "Kaufman-esque" also pertains to playwright George S. Kaufman, so they'll have to share). His debut screenplay, released as a film in 1999, was Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, also his feature debut, and I took a look at it again and it holds up marvelously as one of the most original films you're likely to see.

Originality is the hallmark of Kaufman, as with his follow-ups Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Adaptation, as well as his directorial debut, Synechdoche, New York. There is just no precedent for these scripts, they appear as if by magic from some other realm.

Being John Malkovich has a premise that is mind-boggling: a magic portal allows a visitor to enter the actor's head for fifteen minutes, seeing what he sees, and then is dumped into a ditch by the New Jersey Turnpike. A forlorn puppeteer (John Cusask), having taken a job as a file clerk, discovers this portal in an office that is on half a floor in New York City building (people have to stoop as they visit it) and along with a woman he is in lust with (Catherine Keener), starts a business that promises you can be somebody else for fifteen minutes.

The themes that run through the film are identity, both as gender and simply who we are, and the metaphor of puppetry, as Cusack is able to enter Malkovich and manipulate him as he does his marionettes. As with Kaufman's other scripts, there is a healthy dose of philosophy at foot, but it doesn't seem didactic and is just good fun.

There is a lot to love here, primarily the performance of Malkovich. Kaufman has said that if Malkovich wouldn't do it there would be no film, as there was no backup actor. Malkovich has said he wasn't playing himself, he was playing an actor who is named John Malkovich. But there is a deliriously rich sensation watching this excellent performer have fun with himself, as we watch him eat toast or order bath towels from a catalog. Later, when Cusack is inside him, he plays Cusack's character controlling him to delicious comic effect.

Also in the cast is Cameron Diaz, as Cusack's sad-sack wife. She was an interesting choice, as this beautiful woman was made to look drab. She has a menagerie of exotic animals, including a chimp that sees a therapist because of a childhood trauma (we actually see that trauma, through the chimp's eyes). When she goes into Malkovich's head, she realizes that she is actually a woman trapped in a man's body, as both she and Cusack have fallen in love with Keener.

Being John Malkovich has many other quirks. Orson Bean is Cusack's 105-year-old boss, who has a filthy mind and knows more about Malkovich than he's letting on. His secretary, Mary Kay Place, has a hearing problem, but has convinced Bean that he has a speech impediment.

This film is wonderfully mind-bending. At one point Malkovich goes into the portal to be inside his own head, which prompts a philosophical question. And if we could be someone else, even for fifteen minutes, would that be appealing? The first client of Cusack and Keener asks if he can choose who he can be, and Keener says only John Malkovich. The man says, "He was my second choice, but all right!"

The film has several cameos, including Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, and a very early performance by Octavia Spencer.