BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999) ****

Reviewed 11/1/99

Being John Malkovich is absurdly hilarious with the emphasis on the absurd. A puppeteer finds a portal in his office that leads to John Malkovich's brain, where he experiences something like the Doom video game interface except with John Malkovich. But the less you know going in, the better. With a wildly imaginative screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and matching direction from Spike Jonze, they don't rest on a one-joke premise. As it goes along, Malkovich just keeps getting funnier and more bizarre. The film is of course totally unrealistic with the most unrealistic part being how anyone could get from midtown Manhattan to the New Jersey Turnpike in 15 minutes. The cast, which includes John Cusack and Cameron Diaz, is all-around fantastic, but standing out even more are Catherine Keener, who has never shined like this before, and John Malkovich himself. Why John Malkovich? Great name, great face, great actor, or maybe he's just got that certain je ne sais quoi.


Copyright © 1999 George Wu