Barnes & Noble

This hilarious, breathtakingly original feature debut by music video director Spike Jonze is Alice in Wonderland for the age of celebrity: the rabbit hole that the characters fall into is actor John Malkovich's head. On the seventh and a half floor of a Manhattan office building (yes, half floor -- that's why everyone's stooping), a nebbishy puppeteer (John Cusack) discovers a door that delivers him straight into the mind of Malkovich. The ride is thrilling, but the portal turns out to be a Pandora's box: opening it sets hearts afire and desires running amuck. Cameron Diaz, sporting seriously bad hair, gamely turns her babe wattage way down to play Cusack's plain Jane wife, while Catherine Keener (Your Friends and Neighbors) plays Cusack's seductive office colleague and the object of everyone's obsession. Malkovich, playing himself, does a delicious satire on his own celebrity lifestyle. Watching this film, filled with mistaken identities and dizzying plot twists that never let up, is a bit like being in a car with a crazy but brilliant driver -- unnerving but an awful lot of fun. John Guida

All Movie Guide

Would you pay money to journey into the mind of the star of Con Air, The Killing Fields, and In The Line of Fire? Puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is having money problems, so he takes a temporary job as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a large office building. One day, while rummaging behind a cabinet, he finds a small door that leads to the center of the mind of actor John Malkovich (played by, you guessed it, John Malkovich). Craig discovers that entering the portal allows him to become John Malkovich for a brief spell, and in time he and his beautiful but aloof co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener) get the bright idea to charge admission for the privilege of spending 15 minutes inside the head of a well-known actor. Malkovich realizes that something strange is happening to him, but can do little to stop it, as strangers take over his mind for a quarter-hour at a time. Craig's wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz), eventually takes a trip into Malkovich's psyche, and she soon finds herself in love with Maxine, with whom Malkovich has an affair; meanwhile, Maxine in time becomes infatuated with both Craig and Lotte, but only when they're inside Malkovich. Being John Malkovich marked the feature-length debut of director Spike Jonze, who previously made acclaimed music videos for Weezer, the Beastie Boys, and the Breeders, among others. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025192266522
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital, stereo
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Français, Español, English
• Time: 1:53:00
• Sales Rank: 8,936

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