Herald rating: * * * *
Running time: 112 mins
Rental: Now
Review: Ewan McDonald
In this job it's easy to find yourself writing, "You've never seen a movie like this one."
John Cusack stars as Craig, an unsuccessful street puppeteer; his wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz in dowdy mode), runs a pet store. As
the money dries up Craig answers a help-wanted ad and finds himself on floor 7 1/2 of a building. Behind a filing cabinet, Craig discovers a small doorway, crawls through and is whisked through a portal into the brain of movie actor John Malkovich.
Craig's co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener) convinces him to charge people to spend their 15 minutes inside Malkovich, which provides director Spike Jonze with limitless opportunities for cameo appearances and to stretch the boundaries of movie-making. Meanwhile Malkovich, playing himself, wonders why people are so eager to enter his brain. Sharp, knowing, utterly original.
