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" Being John Malkovich " is a highly original film that for me, never lives up to it's intriguing story . Sure, it's well acted and has some interesting, funny scenes but as a whole the film is a bit of a mess . The plot becomes bloated and quite tiresome in the end. What a shame, because the first half of the movie was terrific.
The surreal story-line concerns a struggling puppeteer , Craig Schwartz , and his discovery of a portal that leads into the head of actor John Malkovich. Schwartz is entagled in a romantic triangle with his wife Lotte and bitchy work partner, Maxine. Schwartz and Maxine use this strange power as a business which allows people to be John Malkovich for 15 minutes , much to the annoyance of Malkovich himself. That’s all you need to know about the plot, and all you should know.
There is a part of me that wants to upgrade this to a four star review, for it's sheer originality , but there are some elements of the movie that prevent me from doing so.
For the first 30 minutes or so, things move along at a frenetic pace . There is Shwartz's hilarious venture into the 7 and a halfth floor of his new employers , and his exchanges with the company's " dirty old man " owner which are absolutely side - splitting. There is good character development , we see the inner depression that hangs over Schwartz and his seeming dis-interest with his wife. This is an unhappy guy . It is an excellent opening , we get character insight with the added bonus of lots of laughs.
But the problem is that the movie never expands on any of its ideas, and simply becomes one, overlong joke. The characters aren't developed any further, and things become very tired. Most of the second half of the movie focuses on the various characters entering John Malkovich's head, which is interesting in the beginning , but after countless scenes of " possesion " over Malkovich , it becomes sluggish and predicatble. These scenes really aren't funny, in comparison with some of the gags in the first half , and frankly I couldn't wait for them to end. There has been a lot of talk regarding the so - called " genius " of the scene where Malkovich enters his own head through the portal and sees various incarnations of himself saying his name. Genius? The ending of Citizen Kane is what I call genius , not an odd quirk like this.
There are, however , one or two excellent jokes in this period of the movie, notably a hilarious Charlie Sheen ( playing himself ) cameo, where " lesbian witches " are among the topics dicussed by Sheen and Malkovich !
The actors here really do an excellent job, in spite of being let down by a bloated ending. John Cusack is his usual great self in the role of Craig Shwartz, portaying well the plight of a man who is feeling the weight of the world. Catherine Keener also gives a very good performance as Maxine, the two timing bitch who works with Schwartz. She succeeds in being the audience's " most hated " in the bunch of characters . John Malkovich must be praised for his self-mockery, and he gives a glitzy, purposely stereotypical movie-star performance, which is highly amusing at times. The best performance in the film comes from Cameron Diaz, who plays a totally out -of-character role as Schwartz's frumpy wife , Lotte. She excellently portays the well-meaning , not too clever woman with a passion for her , uhm , monkey.
Overall, " Being John Malkovich " is an interesting, unusual film with great acting that is unfortunately let down by a major plot slump.
For a premise with so much potential, the final outcome is a disappointment. |
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