Review of Being John Malkovich (1999) by Ray R — 05 Jun 2011

Let me put you in a scenario. There is a scene in Being John Malkovich where Cameron Diaz is trapped in a cage with a chimpanzee. The camera pans up to the chimpanzee, and we get a flashback of what his life used to be like in the wild.

Then, he moves the story forward, and this is never addressed again. Someone give the director a gold medal. There is a key difference between doing random stuff to be original, and going places where many filmmakers should've gone before.

In the middle of the movie, we decide to, for 2 minutes, see what the chimp is thinking. There are many moments like this in Being John Malkovich, and when a film can go from the chimpanzee's memories, to a four-way puppetry complex through metaphors and dialogue, and then back to the narcissism of a celebrity as shown by a mind full of people who look like and talk about nothing but him, it simply cannot be criticized.

While the richness to the narrative and themes of Malkovich are enough to fill a book, the real experience is just being taken down the imagination of one man: Charlie Kaufman. Even this is winked at, with the movie's premise of walking into someone's brain.

While your brain is being teased enough with ideas about yourself and everyone around you, you're also just marveling at whatever will happen next. The loopiness is the key factor in what makes Malkovich so engaging and continuously rewarding.

The best film's are always those that continue to give new insights with each viewing. It should be a crime to view Being John Malkovich only once. With so much to whiz by in this mad-cap world the film is contained in, attention is demanded, but patience is never needed.