Trying to understand Being John Malkovich

I watched Being John Malkovich a few nights ago, and I think I’ve finally figured out the overall meaning of the film. And, since I love to write everything down, I’m going to use my blog as a forum to analyze the complex story line.

A puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) gets a job working on the 7 ½ floor of an office building in Manhattan. While at work, he discovers a secret portal that literally leads inside John Malkovich’s (JM) mind. For 15 minutes, the person inside the portal sees, hears, and feels everything JM is doing. The adventure ends quite suddenly, and the inhabitant is unceremoniously dumped out of JM’s mind and onto the side of the New Jersey turnpike. Schwartz and his business partner, Maxine (Catherine Keener), decide to sell the “experience” for $200 a trip, and people are soon lining up to “Be John Malkovich.”

After about the first 30 minutes of the film, things start to get interesting. Schwartz’s wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz), becomes obsessed with going through the portal because it allows her to act out her transgender desires. Both Schwartz and Lotte fall in love with Maxine, and the result is one of the weirdest 3 ½ way (JM being the half) clusters of ridiculousness I’ve ever encountered.

The plot becomes even more complex when it is realized that JM is supposed to be a host body for a group of people that jump from one portal to the next in an attempt to live forever. Their plans of taking over JM are disrupted when Schwartz realizes he can use his skills as a puppeteer to control Malkovich continuously. He refuses to leave the portal, and ends up spending eight months inside JM’s mind, where he is literally “Being John Malkovich.” He marries Maxine, she gets pregnant, and life progresses.

Moving on...

I’m not going to give away the ending, but this film takes the viewer on a roller coaster ride of enormous proportions. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen next, you’re thrown a curve ball and the entire plot goes in a different direction. My friends warned me that I would either love this film or hate it, and I’m still trying to decide which way to go.

What about the acting?

I want to stop for a moment and talk about the three main cast members. I have always loved John Cusack – because he’s so damn cute – but this role was definitely a favourite for me. He played an unhinged, socially defective, eager-to-be-loved puppeteer masterfully, and I think he was perfect for the role.

Cameron Diaz, on the other hand, has never been a favourite of mine. I have always lumped her in that “cute, blonde, but can’t act” category with a number of others that I won’t name. She has always flown under my radar, although I did think her performance was decent in My Best Friend’s Wedding. When I did a little more digging, I discovered that Diaz has been nominated for a number of Golden Globe awards for her performances in There’s Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York. I’ve also heard her performance in the newly-released Knight and Day was pretty good, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that despite my reservations about Diaz as an actress, I thought she did a fantastic job in Being John Malkovich. She wasn’t made-up or perfectly dressed, and her appearance matched her strange character. Her acting was fantastic, especially when she began to deal with her sexuality.

Catherine Keener has been a favourite of mine for a long time. She has been nominated twice for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The first nomination was for her role of Maxine in Being John Malkovich, and the second was for portraying Harper Lee in the 2005 film Capote (the same film that won Philip Seymour Hoffman the Academy Award for Best Actor). Her performances are always well-executed, and she was great at playing the slightly evil, sexually forward love interest in this film.

Being John Malkovich has become a cult classic, and rightly so. Overall, I believe it is asking us two very important questions. Who would you be if you could be someone else? And, are we all really who we say we are?