Grade: A-

Review by Dana Knowles

 eing John Malkovich is a trippy, goofball romp through the imagination of neophyte screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, and what a delightful imagination it is! The premise is too bizarre to explain adequately without revealing too much, but here's the basic rundown: Craig Schwartz (Cusack) is an out-of-work puppeteer, happily married to the dowdy Lotte (an unrecognizable Cameron Diaz), a pet store worker who urges Craig to find a regular job. He does so, landing a gig as a file clerk at an odd corporation located between two floors of a high-rise office building. Craig discovers a small door in the file room one day and crawls through it. As you might expect, it turns out to be a portal into the mind of John Malkovich. And from there... things get a bit strange! Craig shares his secret discovery with a coworker he covets (Catherine Keener), and they agree to rent access to the portal to the public for $200 a pop. Regardless of what you may or may not presume will come of this decision, the odds that you'll correctly anticipate the next step in the saga are slim to none. And I ain't tellin', either. Nobody wrecked my fun, and I'm not going to wreck yours!

Kaufman's brilliant script is more than ably abetted by the uniformly marvelous performances of a great ensemble cast, the titular John Malkovich being of particular note, running the gamut from deadpan befuddlement to fearless exhibitionism to endearing self-mockery. If he's not nominated for something... it will be a crime against art! Cusack is grungy and pathetic. Diaz is frumpy and sweet. Keener is sexy and captivating. Orson Bean is creepy and funny without ever slipping into cutsie-old-coot territory. Mary Kay Place is hilarious in a few brief moments. And the bit players and star cameos are spot-on perfect with their small--but crucial--contributions. It's difficult to find words sufficient to praise the work of these performers. They're all on the same page with some very, very difficult material, and anything less from the cast as a whole would have diminished the film's impact immeasurably. Serious kudos are in order!

AboutFilm.Com The Big Picture
Carlo	B
Alison	A-
Kris	B+
Jen	-
Dana	A-
Jeff	A-

Spike Jonze directs with little or no visual flair, which is a perfect choice in terms of the film's tone. Imagine a Terry Gilliam film without the wild camera work or the eye-popping art direction, and you've got the basic idea. Jonze presents this absurd tale and these absurd people with an utterly straight face. Anything else would have overwhelmed and underlined the material too severly to allow it to work its magic, so it's to Jonze's great credit that he held back and let the script and the actors take the spotlight. If I have any criticism at all, it would be with regard to the inexplicable murkiness of so many of the shots. While I admired the visual restraint, I was sometimes distracted by the fact that a significant number of shots seem to be needlessly underlit... an effect that adds nothing to the atmosphere or tone, but instead made me wonder just how small the budget for this production actually was. Still, it's a quibble more than a grave complaint, particularly in view of the many ways that Jonze chose perfectly. But it does account for the "minus" attached to my grade.