Being John Malkovich
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| Being John Malkovich | |
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 Being John Malkovich movie poster |
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| Directed by | Spike Jonze |
| Produced by | Steve Golin Vincent Landay Sandy Stern Michael Stipe |
| Written by | Charlie Kaufman |
| Starring | John Cusack Cameron Diaz Catherine Keener Orson Bean Mary Kay Place and John Malkovich |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
| Cinematography | Lance Acord |
| Editing by | Eric Zumbrunnen |
| Distributed by | USA Films (1999-2002) Universal Pictures (non-USA only 1999-2002, worldwide since 2002) |
| Release date(s) |  October 22, 1999 December 26, 1999 March 17, 2000 May 18, 2000 |
| Running time | 112 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13,000,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Being John Malkovich is a 1999 film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. It stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, as well as the actor John Malkovich, who plays a fictionalized version of himself. The plot brings to the forefront several issues in contemporary philosophy of mind, such as the nature of consciousness, the mind-body problem, and sensory perception.
The film was widely praised for its originality, both in terms of the script, which won Kaufman the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay, and Jonze's direction. Kaufman's blending of fact and outrageous fiction was a theme continued in his next film with Jonze, Adaptation.
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[edit] Plot
The film is about a man named Craig Schwartz (John Cusack), an unsuccessful puppeteer involved in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte (Diaz).
Asked by his wife to get a job, Schwartz begins to work as a filing clerk for LesterCorp at their offices in the Mertin Flemmer building in Manhattan. Lestercorp's offices are located on floor 7½ – wedged between the 7th and 8th floors, 7½'s ceilings are so low the employees cannot stand upright ("Low overhead," Schwartz's boss quips). While working here Schwartz discovers a mysterious portal in a wall, which when entered transports him into the consciousness of actor John Horatio Malkovich (the actor's real middle name is Gavin) – allowing him to observe the world through the eyes of his host for about 15 minutes before being thrown into a ditch adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike. The puppeteer demonstrates his discovery to Maxine (Catherine Keener), a co-worker with whom he is obsessed, and she takes control and proposes the two form a business to sell the experience of being John Malkovich at $200 a pop.
After being convinced by Schwartz to try being Malkovich, Lotte becomes obsessed with the experience, wanting to return to Malkovich's mind immediately. She enters Malkovich again while he is at home reading Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Knowing that Lotte is inside Malkovich, Maxine calls and arranges to have dinner with him that evening, posing as a starstruck fan. Lotte covertly returns to the portal that night and finds herself deeply attracted to Maxine, who later claims to have sensed Lotte's presence inside Malkovich's mind during their meeting.
Lotte invites Maxine to dinner. Maxine refuses both Craig's and Lotte's advances and reveals that she is not remotely interested in Schwartz, but is attracted to Lotte when she can sense Lotte inside Malkovich's mind. The pair agree to meet again in this fashion, and Maxine meets and then makes love to Malkovich as soon as she realizes that Lotte is present in his consciousness.
Left alone by the two women, Schwartz realizes the only way he will be able to get close to Maxine is by pretending to be Lotte in Malkovich's body. He forces his wife at gun point to call Maxine and arrange another meeting as Malkovich before tying her in a cage with her pet chimpanzee "Elijah." Maxine seduces Malkovich again, thinking that Lotte is in his mind, but actually it is Schwartz, who discovers this time that he is not a mere passive observer — he can actually manipulate and control Malkovich's body too, as though Malkovich were one of Schwartz's puppets.
Malkovich becomes paranoid that he is being controlled by a supernatural force and, after consulting his friend (a cameo appearance by Charlie Sheen), comes to believe that Maxine is a witch. He follows her to the Mertin Flemmer Building where he discovers J.M., Inc.—the company Schwartz and Maxine set up to sell the experience of being Malkovich. He enters his own portal, which manifests itself as a world where everyone (male or female) has his head and can only say the word “Malkovich.” He is then thrown into the turnpike. Schwartz meets the severely frightened Malkovich there and Malkovich orders him to close the portal. Schwartz ignores him and again forces Lotte to arrange a meeting between Maxine and Malkovich.
After Schwartz leaves to enter Malkovich, Lotte's chimp is inspired to untie her, recalling a childhood memory when he and his parents were captured in the jungle and he tried in vain to untie his father. After the escape, Lotte is then able to call Maxine and inform her of Schwartz's deceit. Surprisingly, Maxine tells Lotte that she was also aroused by Schwartz and that she will still be going to meet Malkovich with Schwartz, who is inside him.
Lotte goes to see Lester, Schwartz's boss, who reveals to her that he has known about the portal for many years and has in fact used it on several occasions in order to live forever in the body of hosts like Malkovich. He has been monitoring Malkovich from a young age and plans to enter his body when it becomes ripe at age 44, along with several of his close friends, and then, they will be able to control it in the way Schwartz has been controlling it. Lester also explains to Lotte that after midnight on the day the host becomes ripe, the portal will move to the next host candidate and that anyone entering after midnight will become trapped in the new host, whose very young subconscious will be powerful enough to overpower whoever has entered the portal. Lotte explains that Schwartz is controlling Malkovich and Lester believes he will be too powerful to remove.
This time when Maxine arrives at Malkovich’s apartment Schwartz is able to take total control of his body and the pair make love before deciding that Schwartz will remain inside Malkovich permanently. Schwartz begins to control Malkovich and, as the story jumps forward eight months, we find that he has reinvented himself as the most successful puppeteer the world has ever seen, helping to revitalize the medium. It is disclosed that he has become married to Maxine, but that the two are becoming increasingly distant, and that this distance has been growing as Maxine's now eight month pregnancy has progressed.
Meanwhile, Lester and his cohorts have captured Maxine, and call Malkovich to tell Schwartz they will kill her if he does not leave Malkovich's body. Schwartz reluctantly leaves Malkovich and Lester and his friends are able to enter his body in time to take it over. Maxine and Lotte fall in love when Maxine reveals that she has had feelings for her since she and Malkovich first had sex, and that she is carrying the baby of Malkovich from when Lotte was inside him.
After Schwartz leaves, Malcovich immediately realizes he is himself once again. This is short-lived, however, as Lester and his cohorts successfully enter into the portal before midnight. Eight years later, Malkovich is shown to be married to another woman. At present, Charlie Sheen is paying him a visit, to which Malkovich reveals the next host for the group to live in forever: Emily, Maxine's child.
Schwartz had become distraught when he found out that Maxine and Lottie were in love, and rushed back to the portal to attempt to re-enter Malkovich, but it was after midnight. In a cruel twist ending, we see that he is trapped in the body of the next host, who happens to be Maxine's daughter Emily, conceived by Lotte when she was in Malkovich. Suppressed by the host’s subconscious he is unable to do anything but watch Maxine and Lotte live happily ever after through the eyes of their child.
[edit] Influences
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The film draws upon themes from Philip K. Dick's novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.[citation needed] The influence of Dick's work would later be referenced in Kaufman's film Adaptation by the fictional screenplay for The 3, which sought to satirize Kaufman's rejected screenplay for a film adaptation of Dick's A Scanner Darkly.
[edit] Cameos
Spike Jonze makes a cameo appearance as Derek Mantini's assistant. Brad Pitt also has a half-second-long cameo, as a miffed star in the documentary on Malkovich's career. He seems to be on the verge of saying something before the shot ends. Sean Penn also appears in the movie as a fan of Malkovich's puppeteer work. Film director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance as Christopher Bing in the American Arts & Culture pseudo documentary on John Malkovich. Charlie Sheen appears as Malkovich's best friend and confidant. Andy Dick can also be seen in the audience of a Malkovich puppet show.
[edit] Awards
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Keener) and Best Original Screenplay.
