Day 83 1/2: “Being John Malkovich” and the Jungian Shadow
This post is late.
Yesterday I taught until 6:30, helped Gary drop the car off at the shop, came home and warmed up some chicken soup to soothe my head cold, and went to bed.
At 4 this morning, I realized that, in DisruptionLand, Day 83 never came.
But that’s okay, because it gives me a good excuse to write about one of my favorite movies of all time, which I’m finding a whole generation has largely missed: Being John Malkovich.
being beyond absurd
To really describe the plot would take all day and still wouldn’t make sense, so I’ll just say this: An out-of-work puppeteer named Craig (John Cusack) gets an office job in the Martin-Flemmer Building and is assigned to work on floor 7 1/2. In his office, he finds a small door, which he discovers is a portal into the mind of actor John Malkovich. Anyone who goes through spends fifteen minutes seeing the world through the eyes of Malkovich, then gets dumped out in a ditch beside the New Jersey Turnpike. (Those ejectment scenes might be the best directing in the movie, and that’s saying something since director Spike Jonze was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the film.)
Things get complicated when Craig’s narcissistic co-worker Maxine (Catherine Kenner) realizes they can make a business of granting access to Malkovich’s mind. Eventually Craig’s wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) gets in on the action, which awakens in her a transgender identity. Maxine falls in love with Lotte - but only when she’s inside Malkovich.
BFA/Alamy.com
Craig, however, has a trump card: Using his puppeteering skills, he discovers he can actually control Malkovich while in his head. He devises a way to extend his control indefinitely - thwarting the plans of his boss, who reveals he is actually a 19th century sea captain named Martin who has found a way to extend his life by entering the minds of certain “portals” on their 44th birthday. Malkovich, 43, is just such a portal. The stakes are high (and, of course, preposterously bizarre).
Malkovich the actor is, of course, in on the joke, in a characteristically quirky and brilliant performance as Malkovich the character. When Malkovich himself figures out what the crew is up to and enters the portal himself, things get momentarily even weirder (if that’s possible).
Being the Shadow
I’ve had several conversations about Top 5 Movies lately, and this one has been one of mine since its release in 1999.
I’ve tried to describe why this film is so brilliant, and I can’t do it justice. Malkovich, Cusack, Keener, and an unrecognizable Diaz are all brilliant, but that’s just normal with those four. Charlie Kauffman’s script is bizarre and hilarious and dark and fascinating and actually makes a weird kind of sense, but that doesn’t quite explain it either.
The film plays with questions about identity, control, and obsession, of course, but that alone isn’t why it’s great.
Maybe Being John Malkovich is great because it takes those dark and uncomfortable aspects of the human personality - in Jungian terms, the shadow that none of us can see (in ourselves, that is) and usually deny the existence of - and lays them bare in a way that it’s hard to look away from (in a train wreck sort of way, but with empathy).
The absurdity of the plot and the enigma of Malkovich as a cultural persona can keep you laughing and looking again just long enough to maybe - just maybe - catch a fleeting glimpse of your own shadow. (Not that you have one, of course. Me neither.)
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a link to the official trailer.