andrewroy-04316 Review of Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Undeniably creative, though thematically dense and jumbled

[6/10 · 23 August 2020]

Being John Malkovich certainly deserves its reputation as one of the more bizarre, ambitious, and original premises out there, and I appreciate that Jonze and Kaufman fully committed to it. This is a film that is really difficult for me to collect my thoughts on, as it's difficult for me to parse what does and does not make sense among the absurdity. I like all of the performances, and I love the premise. Kaufman's screenplay is solid, with several very funny moments that highlight character quirks nicely in the first act. I actually didn't love Jonze's direction - thematically, I found it very jumbled and thought some editing of scenes did not flow smoothly. There were also small touches that felt like a lack of attention to detail or cutting corners, such as it being night outside when the characters say it's 4 PM, or the bizarre acceptance of everyone that such a portal is not only plausible but that the word gets out so quickly as to have customers all day (and who knows how they figured out how to get to floor 7.5 on their own). The true heart of the film, however, rests on the idea of inhabiting someone else's body, and how that changes a person. The notion of an increase in empathy and self-understanding after such an experience is touched on early by Lotte, and only caring about someone for their external appearance is one of the most important themes I took away from the film. I love the idea of immortality through vessels, though both the explanation of how it came about and the way it works for those old people should have been clearer (also, you're telling me someone wrote a book on this top secret vessel process?). While I appreciate that the characters are well defined and unique, they were also by far my biggest problem with Kaufman's screenplay. Craig's absolute obsession with Maxine from the moment he saw her, despite being married and her treating him terribly, was ridiculous. Maxine's disinterest in Craig and Lotte in themselves but loving them within Malkovich is a very interesting idea, but they should've explored the root of that, which unfortunately never happened. Lotte and Craig's relationship is very strange and doesn't seem to make any sense for either of them. There's a lot to appreciate about the film, and I do think you could make a wide range of arguments for different thematic points the film could be making in the third act. That can be good as I do like some ambiguity, but also am frustrated by the lack of clarity in what the vessel process truly represents, and the other small inconsistencies in the characters and direction leave me barely choosing the former between a 6 and a 7.