Being John Malkovich (1999)

★★★★
Every moment in Being John Malkovich, from the opening scene featuring a puppet show all the way to its conclusion, is a revelation. Here is a movie that bursts with so much originality that writing about it fails to do it justice. I remember when I first saw it. Appropriately, a new theater had opened in downtown Reno, and I had already watched Dogma there not long before I saw this. It looked impressive, having been built along the Truckee River and featuring a large lobby with above average offerings at the concession stand. The seats were very comfortable. I read a few reviews for the movie prior to seeing it, but nothing could have prepared me for its creative outburst and imaginative premise. I cannot emphasize enough how thrilled I was to see this. It further cemented 1999's position as one of the strongest years for movies of all time. When it was over, all I could do was watch the credits in admiration and contemplate the fates of its characters.

It's that kind of movie. It starts with a simple premise and then lays down a chain of events that flows logically from that premise, but logic does not equate to predictability. Being John Malkovich has a dozen surprises in store for us and takes us in directions that are completely unexpected, yet the movie never once feels crowded, nor does it ever threaten to collapse due to its willingness to introduce more twists so deep into its runtime. Even years after I've seen it, I'm still amazed by its ideas, visions and sly sense of humor. It's about a puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) who has trouble finding work. His wife Lotte is played by Cameron Diaz, who looks unrecognizable with her frizzy hair. When Craig endures one too many setbacks in getting his career launched, he follows his wife's suggestion and looks for a job in the want ads. He finds something seemingly suited just for him—an offer for a file clerk with fast hands.

The job is for Lestercorp, a company located on the 7½th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. The moment I saw it, I knew I was in for a treat. I will not reveal its layout, which requires employees to make certain compromises in order to carry out their daily tasks. It's a visually splendid gag on its own, yet it doesn't wear itself out, because everybody goes about his business in such a nonchalant way. We eventually accept it, just as the characters do, and the movie doesn't try to force us to laugh every time we return. Craig meets Dr. Lester (Orson Bean), an eccentric old man (he says he's 105) who thinks he has a speech impediment when in fact his secretary has a problem comprehending others' speech. Craig gets the job and attends new employee orientation, which covers the history of the building and the reason for the floor's construction, in another hilarious development. During orientation, he meets Maxine (Catherine Keener) and is instantly attracted to her. They meet at a bar for a few drinks, but it doesn't end well when he reveals that he's a puppeteer.

The next day, Craig is back at work and, while working in a storeroom, finds a small door behind a cabinet. The door leads to a portal, which to Craig's complete surprise takes him straight into the head of actor John Malkovich, more or less playing himself. For fifteen minutes, Craig watches through John's eyes as he goes about his morning routine, ending with a cab ride where the driver thinks John once played a jewel thief. When the time expires, Craig is jettisoned into a ditch next to the New Jersey turnpike. What a trip! Back at home, Craig tells Lotte of his experience, and she wants to try it too. This takes the plot down all sorts of unexpected paths. Craig and Maxine start a side hustle (J.M. Inc.) that allows customers to take the Malkovich ride for $200 each. The opportunity to be someone else, even for fifteen minutes, is an irresistible proposition, yet the movie isn't finished exploring what it can do with this unique premise. It moves briskly from one odd situation to the next, compounding each new revelation with another, yet never convoluting the narrative with loose threads. The pacing is just perfect.

At the time of the movie's release, internet chat rooms and USENET provided a way for people to express themselves without the need to show their faces. This trend has continued into the new millennium, where social media outlets allow faceless commentators to say things that they wouldn't normally say to the people who know them. Taking on a second identity to express a completely different persona is commonplace now, with the medium evolving to the point where a significant portion of lives can be lived online behind an avatar. These methods existed when Being John Malkovich came out, but they were in their infancy. I don't know if writer Charlie Kaufman saw where all this would go, but his script nevertheless has startling parallels with these hidden lives. Lotte at first gets a thrill out of being John Malkvoich, but her enjoyment escalates when John meets Maxine and they have sex, causing Lotte to get carried away by her emotional state. That thrill becomes an obsession. Craig, being a puppeteer, develops the mental acumen to stay in John for longer periods of time, allowing him to live out the life he could never have as his real self.

The '90s featured several films that tackled the possibilities of occupying virtual realms. Virtuosity and Disclosure come to mind, but Being John Malkovich, while containing fewer computer-generated effects, is the most accurate. The closest it gets to an all-out fantasy world is when John Malkovich goes down his own portal, which lands him in a dining room setting that defies description, lest I give away one of the movie's funniest and most mind-boggling scenes. The people who wear the Malkovich face still inhabit the real world, but they do so from a distance. Rather than wear goggles, Craig, Lotte and those cash-paying customers of J.M. Inc. are in one place while seeing events taking place miles away. Kaufman's script is more interested in how people use this tool rather than its technical aspects. We never find out why the portal is there, its origin or how it works. It's just there, so what does everyone do with it? Director Spike Jonze, in his directorial debut, was unknown to me at the time and is still a bit of a mystery. A music video director, Jonze came out of nowhere to tell this tale. Whatever he did to cultivate the imagination needed to bring Kaufman's script to life worked.

Being John Malkovich is astonishing from start to finish. After I first saw it, I couldn't get it out of my head for days. I encouraged everyone I knew to see it. It's a special kind of movie, premiering at the right time and saying the things that needed to be said. This movie isn't a warning so much as it is an observation. What's so great about it is that it stands on its own. It could be a movie about identity and the notion of anonymity, but you could just cast all that aside and you still have a quirky story with plenty of twists, and part of the fun is to appreciate its audacity to keep revealing itself. Not content to glide to the finish line, Being John Malkovich has enough confidence to keep peeling back the layers. Late in the movie, we learn the full implications of the portal. As if the story's scope isn't wide enough already, it just made itself wider, but even that isn't the final surprise. Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze keep outdoing themselves. Watching this movie is pure joy. It's no exaggeration to say it's brilliant.

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