Being John Malkovich

Spike Jonze’s 1999 debut makes the puppeteer Craig a clerk on an office block’s 7 1/2 floor, where he finds a passage into John Malkovich’s head. The film does lay out its rules. In the third act Dr Lester turns out to be Captain Mertin, who found the portal in the late 1800s and built the block over it, and a circle of elderly friends waits to move into Malkovich on his 44th birthday. The real subject is who runs the door: the find becomes a business in the first act. The 7 1/2 floor is a built set whose low ceiling keeps the cast bent over through whole scenes of office dialogue. Kaufman wrote it on spec in 1994 and studios passed. Malkovich’s company asked whether the character could be somebody else and offered that he direct; his own line was “Why not Being Tom Cruise I asked?” Once aboard he pushed the other way: “be mean to Malkovich, the meaner the better”. The shoot ran 42 days. At the 72nd Academy Awards it took nominations for Directing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen and Actress in a Supporting Role, and won none. A good fit if you want the low ceiling held to the end. Not for you if you need Craig to become sympathetic.