A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Being John Malkovitch

Date Viewed: 12/5/99

Details:

John Cusack

Cameron Diaz

Catherine Keener

John Malkovitch

Director: Spike Jonze

Score: 1/2

The Review:

Starting at the 7-1/2 floor of a Manhattan office building, winding down a hidden slimy corridor literally into the mind of John Malkovitch, ending up being ejected into a ditch beside the Garden State Parkway -- this is like no movie you have ever seen.

It is events like this that give me hope for the future of film. This is so refreshingly novel, and so intriguingly bizarre, that it astounds and fascinates. There is a bit of Brazil in this, and instead of a renegade duct repairman (the wry Robert de Niro), we have a puppeteer (Cusack), who needs to supplement his street art with a real job. His wife (Diaz, cast atypically as a passive aggressive frump; at first I didn't recognize her) encourages his job hunt, and he ends up as a fast-fingered filing clerk on the 7-1/2 floor of a midtown Manhattan office building. By now, things are slowly slipping into the sublimely silly -- the pseudo-history of the origins of the half-floor is a scream! -- and it goes uphill from there. Or, rather, squeamishly sideways -- down a corridor hidden behind some filing cabinets. A side business is created, and Cusack's unrequited love interest (Keener) becomes his partner.

It should come as no surprise that "things are not as they seem." How often has that phrase been used?, but how appropriate it is in this case! Several odd twists and turns keep the viewer almost as off balance as trying to walk down the corridor on the 7-1/2 floor.

An excellent cast; an excellent film. Unique and imaginative.

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