On Being John Malkovich

I put my hands down to writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze for creating this genius of a film. The premise is brilliant and demented; the treatment utterly surreal yet plausible--except for the ending, which turned me off. But, hey, that's just me.

The film is a reflection (albeit a crazy one) on, among other things, the idea of the self, churning out a number of philosophical and metaphysical questions.

First, what happens when one person enters the mind of another through a portal of some sort? In the film, an eccentric puppeteer named Craig Schwartz discovers a (literal) door by which to enter actor John Malkovich's brain, after which, occurrences branch out that ultimately lead to chaotic consequences (but what else could come out of it?).

Second, in this kind of "possession," whose is the mind that's working? And, if this entry were indeed possible, what effect will it have both to the intruder and the one being entered? Initially, the one able to enter Malkovich's mind can only stay there for 15 minutes, but through his talents as a puppeteer, Craig finds a way to stay for an indefinite period of time, possibly, even, forever, as his skills enable him to take control of Malkovich's brain the way he would control one of his dolls. Incidentally, giving Craig his profession was a stroke of sheer genius. The entire movie is held together by his "puppeteering," becoming the perfect foil and metaphor to build the story around. Once he was able to penetrate and take control of Malkovich's mind--and, consequently, to manipulate and pull the strings on Malkovich's life--he gets the chance to give the greatest performances of his life, a chance not accessible to him when he was just, well, himself.

Next, if you could enter your own mind, what will you see? When Malkovich went inside his own brain, he saw only himself. The world was full of John Malkovich--everything was John Malkovich. I had to wonder, then, was this a unique outcome, in the sense that, if everyone else entered their own minds, will they also see themselves and themselves alone, or something altogether different? What will it be like, to be your own voyeur?

The premise is extremely thought-provoking. I'm still thinking about the movie and reeling from its "newness," hours after I've seen it. Elements of the strange abound here. The plot is dizzying; the implications endless and exhausting to enumerate.

Let me ask one other question, though: If it were possible, at all, to go inside someone else's mind--or head, for that matter--would we want it?

In the early part of the film, Craig says to Elijah, the chimp, "consciousness is a terrible thing." To be in someone else's mind is to double the consciousness.

Would we want to replicate the ugliness he spoke of?