Being John Malkovich at 22: Spike Jonze's surrealist drama was as analytical as it was outlandish

“Consciousness is a terrible curse: I think, I feel, I suffer.”

Filmmaker Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kauffman’s 1999 surrealist feature film, Being John Malkovich, is one of the rare movies that reject stringent categorisation. It is primarily a story about an obsessive, failed puppeteer who accidentally discovers a portal to Hollywood star John Malkovich’s mind. It is twisted and humorous, but the film is laced with a gnawing sense of melancholy.

The film opens with a puppet show that its director, Craig Schwartz (John Cusack), calls "Craig's Dance of Despair and Disillusionment." The puppet is in despair; he discovers that his movements are controlled by a man who looks exactly like him. In desperation, he smashes the mirror that reflects his state of servitude. The auditorium breaks into thunderous applause; but it quickly revealed that the auditorium is a part of Craig’s home, and the applause is nothing but a recording that he himself plays right at the end of his performance.

Writer Xan Brooks has argued that the central themes of Being John Malkovich are played out in the opening scene itself. Being John Malkovich is a bizarre exploration of identity, its simulation, freedom of expression, the craving for validation, gender fluidity and the obsession with celebrity lives. But Kauffman and Jonze’s film is as cerebral as it is outlandish. To give a sense of its outlandishness, the film has a chimpanzee who has a flashback about his family in captivity. It also has Charlie Sheen in a genius cameo as Malkovich’s friend who encourages him to go ahead and experiment with “hot lesbian witches.”

It has, over the years, almost attained a cult status, but even 22 years after release, the film’s scope remains evasive. When taken through John Malkovich’s mind, he usually is seen engaged in the most mundane activities, which includes selecting the perfect periwinkle hand towel, or rifling through the contents of his refrigerator. It is a vapid world where nothing really adds value, and yet, people would pay to experience the same vapidity of the entertainment industry.

The same mundane moments of an actor’s life, when viewed from the point of view of those who haven’t tasted fame or success like Malkovich has, become invigorating. The fifteen minutes Craig’s wife Lotte Schwartz (Cameron Diaz) spends inside Malkovich’s mind, as the actor takes a shower, becomes the first time that she identifies herself as a transgender man. Discovering herself in the body of a man for the very first time is thrilling for her — she feels desirable. She tells her husband, “Being inside did something to me. Everything made sense. I knew who I was!”

Conversely, the portal is not a means for Craig’s self actualisation. It is the literal portal for him to dissolve into any identity that would let him experience the thrill of fame. He is as desperate to control Malkovich’s life as he is of his wife, whom he locks up in a cage. For Malkovich himself, the portal is a reflection of the loss of his own identity. When he enters the portal, every person he sees is a version of himself, and they only speak one word - Malkovich. Every person is a mirror image of the next, sans individuality.

There is a nagging sense of doom and sadness in Being John Malkovich. Its protagonist is a man who has waited for years for his career to take off, but finally settles for a job as an office clerk at a weird low-ceiling office where employees need to crowbar their way out of the lift between the seventh and eighth floors. Even its premise is tinged with existential dread, that someone’s else life for 15 minutes is more precious than the countless whose lives remain undocumented and uncelebrated. But even those who live under the arclights aren’t living their best lives. In his subconscious, a younger Malkovich is seen sniffing undergarments or getting bullied in his school bus for wetting his pants. The segue into the mind of a Hollywood actor is ridiculous, and yet, it lends a peek into the darkest insecurities of a man who has shoved all uncomfortable memories into his subconscious.

Beyond the film’s mind-bending concepts, Being John Malkovich was also a technical masterpiece. The scene where Lottie chases her beloved Maxine Lund (Caroline Keene) inside Malkovich’s subconscious is executed brilliantly. Likewise, the scene where Malkovich enters his own portal is acted out and set up with acute precision.

Highly inventive in scope and execution, Being John Malkovich is a nightmarish delight that is as frustrating as it is rewarding. It certainly comes dangerously close to becoming too self-indulgent. After all, it is a story about narcissism, and its protagonist is a narcissistic artist himself. But it is the genius of Jonze and Kauffman that the many overlapping and diverse concepts are reigned in within the 112 minutes runtime in a keenly observational, raucously humorous drama.