Being John Malkovich (1999)

  
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH is an agreeable exercise is sustained strange-
ness, a three-way (or is it four-way?) love story about an aspiring 
puppeteer-turned-file clerk (John Cusack), his humdrum wife (Camer-
on Diaz), the sultry woman-across-the-hall (Catherine Keener), and 
how their lives are changed after Cusack's character discovers a 
portal into the mind of Mr. Malkovich.  (It's a wee door in a wee 
office on the 7 1/2th floor of a New York tower that leads into the 
actor's head.  Admission is free, but after 15 minutes, visitors 
are spit out somewhere along the Jersey Turnpike.)  Sounds strange, 
should be stranger, and, yet, it inexplicably makes *more* sense as 
it goes.  (Relatively speaking.)  Bottom line:  funny, freaky, with 
plenty of star self-spoofing, and two of the *worst* haircuts in 
either Cameron's or Cusack's career.  Get thee to a stylist!  With 
Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, and, in the surprise cameo of the year, 
Ima Nottelling.  Spike Jonze directs from a script by Charlie Kauf-
man.

Grade: B+

Copyright 1999 Michael J. Legeros
Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros

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