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Rebound Reviews: “Being John Malkovich”

This month, AfterEllen.com is bringing you reviews of several newer lesbian classics. We’ve all heard of Desert Hearts, but what came after?

Written by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich is one of the strangest, most entertaining and fascinating examinations of the nature of identity ever to appear in a mainstream American film. What’s especially of interest is the complicated and whimsical way the movie deals with sexual identity; it also features a thoroughly positive representation of two women in love.

There are all sorts of metaphysical gymnastics on the way to that particular point, but the journey is more than worth the Freudian headache it induces.

As the film begins, we meet Craig (a barely recognizable John Cusack), an unsuccessful puppeteer, and his animal-loving wife, Lotte (an equally unrecognizable Cameron Diaz). It seems that Craig hasn’t been getting any work with his artful, dramatic puppet shows, so he takes a job on floor 7½ of the Mertin Flemmer building. This is the first step into a truly odd world, where Craig finds himself among co-workers such as the sexy, manipulative Maxine (Catherine Keener) and his bizarre boss.

One day, Craig accidentally falls into a tunnel and finds himself out of his mind – literally, as an observer in the mind of actor John Malkovich. For 15 minutes, Craig experiences every sensation Malkovich does as the actor goes about his routine; then he is unceremoniously dumped by the side of the Jersey turnpike.

As Craig introduces the “Malkovich experience” to his wife and his crush, Maxine, things begin to get complicated. He and Maxine start up a business charging people to enter Malkovich’s mind. Lotte becomes smitten with Maxine and with the experience of being inside Malkovich, pulling up an entire host of questions for her budding sense of self and her sexuality.

“Complicated” doesn’t even begin to describe the labyrinthine plot, which also includes Craig’s boss (who plans on living forever by jumping from one “host” body to the next) and the bizarre happenings that occur when Malkovich himself gets wise to the goings on and enters his own portal. However, the basic themes of identity – especially sexual identity, control and manipulation – underscore every scene.

Both Craig and Lotte fall for Maxine, who loves all the attention and even begins dating Malkovich – just because she can. She also develops feelings for Lotte, but not for Craig. The love triangle that forms between Craig, Lotte and Maxine is further complicated by Maxine’s only returning Lotte’s affections when she’s inside Malkovich – a point that becomes clear in one hilarious scene in which both Craig and Lotte try to kiss Maxine after an awkward dinner together.

At first, the attraction is tenuous; Maxine is attracted to the feminine presence within Malkovich and describes herself as being “taken” with that element of Lotte. Lotte herself goes through a period wherein she believes herself to be more comfortable in Malkovich’s form, an attitude that changes throughout the course of the film.

Lotte eventually realizes that her obsession with being Malkovich is actually a genuine love for Maxine. Through it all, they manage to have something of a relationship, meeting when Lotte is in Malkovich. This drives Craig crazy with jealousy, and he begins to manipulate the situation to suit his own selfish purposes.

There is more gender-bending going on here than can adequately be described, but somehow, through the events of Lotte and Maxine’s relationship, Maxine becomes pregnant with Lotte/Malkovich’s child.

Maxine, however, is initially only interested in power. Though she returns Lotte’s affections, she ends up manipulating Craig to take over Malkovich’s body (like the puppeteer that he is) so she can rise to fame with him. Craig is no saint, either, allowing his jealousy over the Maxine/Lotte relationship to get the best of him.

Later, after a very amusing sequence detailing “Malkovich’s” newfound success as a puppeteer, we see a lovelorn Maxine pining for her true love: Lotte. Toward the end of the movie, after Lotte and Maxine express their true feelings for each other, they run off and raise a happy family together.

Craig is left quite literally in the dust, and later becomes (through his own wrongdoing) permanently disembodied — as powerless as can be and unable to ruin Maxine and Lotte’s domestic bliss. It’s potentially one of the happiest lesbian couplings in recent history, and it only took two hours of body transmogrification to get there.

One of the most interesting elements of the film is the whimsical and even playful attitude towards gender. To be more precise, the emphasis here is less on gender and more on the desire to be someone — anyone — else.

At one point in the film, Craig describes puppetry in similar terms, saying, “The desire to be in someone else’s skin is overwhelming.” It doesn’t seem to truly matter that Malkovich is male, though that initially plays a part in Maxine and Lotte’s relationship. He is merely the physical representation of being someone new, seeing the world through new eyes.

The same can be said of using others, which is the other main theme of the film: manipulation. It’s no coincidence that Craig is a master puppeteer, eventually gaining control of Malkovich’s body and living in it as if it were his own.

Maxine is guilty of the same crime, as she leaves Lotte for a time in order to use Malkovich/Craig to rise to fame. Everyone who “uses” Malkovich runs the risk of being disembodied (which happens to the power-hungry Craig), of literally losing him or herself. So while the urge to experience the world through new eyes is enticing, it’s not the way to go.

The characters and the strange journeys they embark upon truly make the movie. Maxine begins the film as a sexy, manipulative conniver, forever confidant and used to getting what she wants. Throughout the course of the film, she is open to new experiences, falls in love, ignores that love, suffers and then finds love again.

Lotte starts off as a goofy, aloof animal lover, begins to think she’s better off in a male body, falls in love, forgets about the body thing and ends up being happy.

Craig fares worse. He begins the film as a misunderstood artist, he connives and manipulates, and eventually he ends up powerless and trapped.

At its heart, in fact, the movie is a love story and parable about finding oneself. Craig is punished at the end because he can’t be satisfied being himself, and he manipulates people to get what he wants.

Both Lotte and Maxine suffer throughout the film — Lotte because she feels like she needs to be in Malkovich to be happy, and Maxine because she won’t admit that she loves Lotte (not Malkovich) until the end. Throughout all the insanity and complications, Lotte and Maxine find each other, lose each other and reconnect in a twist on the classic “girl meets girl; girl loses girl; girl wins girl back” romantic comedy paradigm.

Being John Malkovich is not a film for the faint-of-brain, nor for those who can’t appreciate its incredibly quirky worldview or sense of humor. But the film has some interesting things to say about the nature of gender and sexuality, and it never sensationalizes or belittles said notions. Plus, it is monstrously funny — at least for those who enjoy the offbeat.

But perhaps most importantly, it features a strange but happy little lesbian love story at its heart, proving that not every mainstream lesbian relationship has to be sensationalized or oversimplified to be effective in a film.

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