Being John Malkovich

A-

This is a fun weird movie. It's hard to believe a movie like this can even be made in Hollywood because it is just so far out there. But it is so good on so many different levels that it is hard not to like. I would love to tell you every last detail but the less you know the better. I didn't really hear all that much about it, but it was still too much.

If you like kind of weird movies and don't mind if they venture a little into the silly at times you will really enjoy this. The surrealism of parts of it reminded me of Brazil but without the underlying menace and gloominess. John Cusack did well to choose this movie, continuing a string of really good films that includes the sort of similarly offbeat and comically dark Grosse Pointe Blank of 1997. Cameron Diaz's stock has definitely gone up with her performance that is almost completely unrecognizable from any of her previous work. John Malkovich also is solid, having to play a parody of himself as well as some more challenging work later in the movie.

So, it's fun, complex, silly, bizarre, and always interesting. My only complaint is that it starts to drag about 2/3 of the way through before picking up a little bit at the end. But the first half is the best thing I think I've seen this year, certainly in terms of any kind of well-crafted comedy.

I agree with the paper's rating of A-, because as good as it was, there were some weaknesses.

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