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Plot Summary
Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is a struggling street puppeteer. In order to make some money, Craig takes a job as a filing clerk. One day he accidentally discovers a door… a portal into the mind of John Malkovich (played by John Malkovich)! For 15 minutes, he experiences the ultimate head trip - HE is John Malkovich! Then he's dumped out onto the New Jersey turnpike! With his beautiful office mate Maxine (Catherine Keener) and his pet-obsessed wife (Cameron Diaz), they hatch a plan to let others into John's brain for just $200 a trip.
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
93%- Reviews Counted: 123
- Fresh: 114
- Rotten: 9
- Average Rating: 8.1/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: The most excitingly original movie of the year.
Fresh: Devilishly inventive and so far out there it's almost off the scale.
Fresh: Highly original script.
Fresh: Weird to the max, smart, sneaky as a Wall Street pickpocket and revved up with cruel wit and brazen imagination, Being John Malkovich is a dark movie comedy that you couldn't forget if you tried.
Customer Reviews
Last great film of the 20th Century...
Released in one of recent cinema's greatest years, 1999, (including everything from popular, quality blockbusters such as SIXTH SENSE to the tiniest jewels--ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, BOYS DON'T CRY--and the sprawling, embittered brilliance of everything in between--most notably MAGNOLIA and AMERICAN BEAUTY), BEING JOHN MALKOVICH reigned supreme for its auspicious dissection of everything from the 'meta' in metaphor to the idea of obsessive love, celebrity, isolation--all as notions of 'puppet mastering.' In one of film's all-time greatest head-trips, we are literally led in a cerebral, perverse journey through the wires of John Malkovich and how, popping out on the NJ 'pike after several minutes, we change so incredibly. Cameron Diaz hasn't ever been better--she is the true heart of the film, playing it 'ugly' and bravely going where few actors might have been willing to go--on a quest for her own sexual identification through the mirror of Malkovich; Catherine Keener (Oscar-nominated) paints her most notorious (perhaps since typecast) character as a cruel-cool-beauty with a simmering nastiness and a real heart of semi-gold just beneath; Malkovich himself is dazzling and tremendously game; and John Cussack is the 'glue' that comes unglued from all of these characters/portals/lenses into the deepest of human insight. The more absurd the ride becomes, the more we think, and the more we ponder, the more expansive the world--and its insane possibilities become. Not since A FISH CALLED WANDA has absolute character-ensemble madness coalesced into such unexpected and satisfying narrative brilliance--and hilarity. A film to relish.
Definitely strange, but a great movie to watch.
I am a huge JOhn Cusack fan, and while this movie is very strange, it's also pretty good. The story line itself is very interesting and the actors do a fantastic job. But if you're not into twisted plotlines and oddball characters, than this probably isn't the movie for you.
GENIUS
Just finished watching the movie and I was totally blown away. Had to write a review but still dumbfounded by what i saw, so can't really come up with words to express what i feel. I guess all i can say is pure genius from beginning to end.
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