Being John Malkovich (1999)
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 113m
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, Charlie Sheen
Synopsis:
An out-of-work puppeteer takes a job in a filing company on floor 7 and a half of an office building and finds a portal into John Malkovich's brain which changes his life.
Review:
Impossible to synopsize, this surrealist fantasy is hilarious for its first half, with an 'anything goes' atmosphere halfway between Eraserhead and Monty Python. It then becomes more serious as the characters' relationships fracture under the pressure of a passion which can only be requited through the vessel of Malkovich: the puppeteering theme, brilliantly introduced as a gift too fine to be appreciated by most, here shows its dark side as manipulation of an individual for personal ends. Finally, though, the film is so energetic and gleeful in its inventiveness that to attribute any didactic purpose would seem presumptious. Malkovich plays along good-humouredly with being the object of such multiple exploitation.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 113m
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, Charlie Sheen
Synopsis:
An out-of-work puppeteer takes a job in a filing company on floor 7 and a half of an office building and finds a portal into John Malkovich's brain which changes his life.
Review:
Impossible to synopsize, this surrealist fantasy is hilarious for its first half, with an 'anything goes' atmosphere halfway between Eraserhead and Monty Python. It then becomes more serious as the characters' relationships fracture under the pressure of a passion which can only be requited through the vessel of Malkovich: the puppeteering theme, brilliantly introduced as a gift too fine to be appreciated by most, here shows its dark side as manipulation of an individual for personal ends. Finally, though, the film is so energetic and gleeful in its inventiveness that to attribute any didactic purpose would seem presumptious. Malkovich plays along good-humouredly with being the object of such multiple exploitation.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor 113m
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, Charlie Sheen
Synopsis:
An out-of-work puppeteer takes a job in a filing company on floor 7 and a half of an office building and finds a portal into John Malkovich's brain which changes his life.
Review:
Impossible to synopsize, this surrealist fantasy is hilarious for its first half, with an 'anything goes' atmosphere halfway between Eraserhead and Monty Python. It then becomes more serious as the characters' relationships fracture under the pressure of a passion which can only be requited through the vessel of Malkovich: the puppeteering theme, brilliantly introduced as a gift too fine to be appreciated by most, here shows its dark side as manipulation of an individual for personal ends. Finally, though, the film is so energetic and gleeful in its inventiveness that to attribute any didactic purpose would seem presumptious. Malkovich plays along good-humouredly with being the object of such multiple exploitation.