Review of Being John Malkovich

Introduction

Every now and again a film comes along that breaks moulds, keeps away from the formulaic clap-trap of modern Hollywood blockbusters, and genuinely surprises you. I think it`s fair to say that this is one such film. Read on..............

Video

A very good 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is on offer here, possibly slightly better than the region 1 transfer. The dark scenes in the Schwartz appartment come across well, as do some of the other far more bizarre scenes that appear in this movie. Colours are good, detail level is high, and everything looks great.

Audio

A very good DD5.1 audio track, which literally makes you feel like you are inside the head of Mr Malkovich at times. But then I guess that it`s pretty obvious that it would try to do that, given the name of the film! Excellently done, plenty of work for all of your speakers here.

Features

A large number of extras on show here, but you will have ploughed through all of them in about 20 minutes. Given the nature of the film, this comes as no surprise. We do lose two of the features from the region one disc though. And we do get the "standard annoying Universal menu icons" (tm).

On to the extras themselves. First you get two features shown within the film - the rather amusing "American Arts & Culture Presents... John Horatio Malkovich, Dance of Despair and Disillusionment" and of course the "7 ½ Floor Orientation Film".

You get the standard trailer and TV spots, but in keeping with the film these are not quite so standard, and some of the TV spots are very good indeed. And there are also actor biographies, but slightly more indepth than usual. You can watch a very short interview with the director (with its own warning about the way the interview was allegedly conducted). This is just whacked out. And finally, there is an extra which consists of page with nothing on it, which you are informed of in advance and advised not to click on it. A very odd extra, but one that fits in well with the odd nature of the film.

I was really looking forward to listening to a writer/director commentary for this one, but it`s not there. Big shame, as I really wanted to hear more about this film.

Conclusion

It`s difficult trying to write a review for this film. It`s so weird, but it`s also so good. Until about chapter 10 you wonder if you`re watching the right film, as nothing really ties up with what you might be expecting.

An almost unrecognisable performance from Cameron Diaz (yes, it`s her), a very John Cusack performance from Cusack, and excellent performances from Catherine Keener (she reminded me a lot of Tea Leoni from early 1990s US sitcom The Naked Truth actually), and Malkovich himself. Great puppet work during the film too (I don`t know much about the art of puppeteering, but it looks great to me).

I just can`t find words to describe this - you really must see it for yourself. Quite a few of you will probably turn off halfway through, but if you can resist that urge you`ll find something quite original waiting for you.

I will leave the final summary to Chris Morris, creator of The Day Today and Brass Eye. This film is indeed "the twisted brain-wrong of a one-off man-mental."