Product Description

What would you do if you found a mysterious portal in your workplace that led into the head of actor John Malkovich, giving you the chance to experience everything he does for 15 minutes? For puppeteer/file clerk John Cusack, wife Cameron Diaz and co-worker Catherine Keener, the find leads to a money-making scheme, a twisted love triangle, and a multi-layered identity crisis. Director Spike Jonze and scripter Charlie Kaufman's outrageously original comedy also stars Orson Bean, and John Malkovich as himself. 113 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: French, Spanish; interview; featurettes; biographies; filmographies; TV spots; theatrical trailer; more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15628 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 2002-11-05
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich.

The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognizable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalize on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pièce de résistance, riffing on his own persona with obvious delight and--when he enters his own brain via the portal--appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, Being John Malkovich is a wild place to visit. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
An out-of-work puppeteer (John Cusack), his pet-loving girlfriend (Cameron Diaz), and a cynical office worker (Catherine Keener) take turns entering the head of the actor John Malkovich, where they remain for fifteen minutes at a time, experiencing everything he does, before being deposited with a whoosh beside the New Jersey Turnpike. This fantastic weightless comedy (sci-fi without the future or rockets or bad consequences), which was written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze, plays with notions of celebrity worship and gender reversal, but the best thing about it is the genially deadpan style of its most absurd inventions. No great fuss is made about the launching pad for the Malkovich invasions, which is an office with ceilings so low that everyone must stoop. There are wonderful jokes-such as a monkey with bad memories, and Malkovich, possessed, doing spastic riffs equal to Steve Martin's in "All of Me." To see this actor who is known for his insolent equipoise literally freaking out is one of the more satisfying sights of the year. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker