Being John Malkovich is a 1999 fantasy comedy-drama film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.
Craig Schwartz is a very talented and passionate puppeteer who works on the street, but for him this does not seem to be a lucrative career, which is why he attends a curious building in New York for a job interview where he is immediately hired as a file clerk. At his new job Craig meets Maxine, a co-worker with whom he falls obsessively in love despite being married to Lotte, a woman who likes to keep different kinds of unusual animals as pets and who also seems to be the only person who insists on trying to have a child with him. This obsessive love triangle becomes bizarrely and unpredictably complicated when Craig discovers a hidden door in the office that leads to John Malkovich's head.
The film is a very dark comedy that takes unpredictable directions that push its characters to explore in a literal and voyeuristic way the desire to be someone else, the desire to experience success, the feeling of being in a relationship with the person they love, but without that person feeling a real love interest, obsession and its consequences, curiosity about the sensations of the opposite sex, sexual desire without gender distinction, almost solipsistic human egocentrism, and relationships between men and women.
The travel that begins as a curious story with fantasy elements suddenly takes a dark highway to tragedy, progressing down a road where things get more and more complicated.
John Cusack as an obsessive artist who feels misunderstood and obsessed with recognition and a woman, Cameron Diaz as a frustrated and obsessive woman, Catherine Keener as a confident and manipulative woman, John Malkovich as a fictionalized version of himself, and various supporting characters and cameos like Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, David Fincher and more.
The excellent direction of Spike Jonze on a great script by Charlie Kaufman leaves us with a film of one hour and fifty-three minutes, quite entertaining, dynamic, dark and possibly reflective.
Being John Malkovich was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress.
It is a great movie that I recommend to those who have not yet seen it.
Let me know in the comments what you think of the film, and if you haven't seen it yet, let me know if you'd be interested in seeing it or why you'd rather see something else.
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