Anyone seeing
the video Spike Jonze (Conrad in
Three Kings)
directed for "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim, might well expect his first
feature to be a suitably strange affair. And indeed, they would be right.
One can only imagine the look on John Malkovich's face when he was
presented with the script!
One of the most imaginative and funny films of the year so far, Being John
Malkovich centres on Craig Schwartz (Cusack), an unemployed but very
talented puppeteer and his wife, Lotte (Diaz) a pet shop owner, who seems to
bring home most of the residents of her shop.
Lotte persuades Craig to get a job, which he duly does at Lestercorp, a
company located on Floor 7 of its building (a gag which really has to be seen).
There, Craig meets Maxine (Keener) and falls instantly in lust with the
enigmatic beauty. One day he drops some files behind a cabinet and discovers
a mysterious door leading into a dark tunnel. When he crawls in he is
suddenly transported into John Malkovich's head. He can see out of his eyes...
he is being John Malkovich.
After 15 mins he is spat out on to the Jersey Turnpike. He tells Maxine
and she proposes they set up a business selling trips through the portal. Soon,
Lotte is taking trips inside Malkovich's head, as is half the city. Then,
Malkovich himself gets wind of the venture...
To say anymore would really spoil this wonderfully inventive and darkly
comic tale. Suffice to say, this is one film you will be discussing long
after the end credits have disappeared. Recommended if you like something a
bit out of the ordinary.
Extras:
Very good extras, infused with the same sense of the bizarre as the film. A
Page With Nothing On It does exactly what it says on the tin, unless it's a
secret portal itself!! (If anyone finds any hidden features, please let me
know!)
The only criticism that I would have is that there is no commentary by the
director, but then maybe its best not to explain too much and leave it all up
to us to make of it what we will.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
