The first thing that should be said about Being John Malkovich is that it is one of the most bizarre, original, and fresh movies to emerge from Hollywood in a long time.
John Cusack brilliantly portrays a puppeteer who is stuck in an unhappy marriage with an unrecognisable Cameron Diaz. One day,he is beaten up by a concerned father after presenting a puppet show complete with suggestive moans and autoeroticism, and he decides to become a filing clerk, due to his inability to find work doing what he loves best.
From this point, the film becomes weirder and weirder. The office of his employers is situated between two floors of a Manhattan office block, so that the workers are forced to bend down if they want to walk around.
Soon after starting his new job, John Cusack finds a secret portal leading to John Malkovich's consciousness, with interesting and disastrous results. This is definitely not a film that mainstream audiences will enjoy, and it must be said that the director, Spike Jonze, tries perhaps too hard to be different. All I will say is this: at the end of the screening, more than half the audience walked out of the cinema with a blank look on their face.
That said, the performances are excellent from all, and if you want to see an oddly charming, hugely absurdist gem, then go and see this film. Just be warned: You WILL have to think.
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