BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

Directed by Spike Jonze. Starring John Cusack, John Malkovich, Catherine Keener, Cameron Diaz

THE WEIRDEST, most bizarrely-conceived movie in living memory – bar none – Being John Malkovich is practically impossible to get your head around on one viewing, and even harder to coherently explain. All that can be said with certainty is that the film bears the stamp of genius – it’s wildly eccentric, dazzlingly ambitious and breathtakingly original. The debut feature of former pop-promo director Spike Jonze, it fuses bizarre screwball comedy, surrealist fantasy, cruelly misanthropic satire and off-beat philosophy into a truly remarkable whole, leaving you bemused, exhilarated and desperate for a second viewing. Conventional, it's not.

Decrepit, unshaven loser Craig Schwartz (Cusack) is married to mousey, neurotic animal-lover Lotte (Diaz, looking dowdier than one could have dared imagine) who talks him into getting a job as a clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor (you'll see) of an office block, whereupon he encounters super-cool vamp-cynic Maxine (Keener) and falls hopelessly in love with her. Peering behind the filing cabinet one day, he discovers a door which transpires to be a portal into John Malkovich's head, affording the visitor an opportunity to 'be Malkovich' for fifteen minutes. Craig soon discovers he can control Malkovich's movements, and embarks on a mission to win renown as a puppeteer and seduce Maxine – who by this time has developed an attraction to Lotte, though only when she's in character as Malkovich.

Confused? Yep, I thought so. But don't worry – in terms of pure comic value, Malkovich is easily one of the most mirthful cinematic experiences it has ever been my pleasure to behold. The man himself might have been forgiven for avoiding this film like the plague, but he good-naturedly self-parodies his perceived persona throughout in side-splitting style, and no-one will ever be able to look at him in quite the same light again. The whole cast chip in with performances to savour – Cusack, straggly-haired and bespectacled, departs completely from type and is an absolute joy to behold, while Keener affirms her status as the Universe's second-sexiest woman with a deliciously malevolent masterclass in caustic conversational coolness.

Wild flights of fancy pepper the movie from start to finish – there's a hallucination sequence which takes place inside a chimpanzee's memory, and much in the way of similar madness. Comparisons aren't easy to come by, but the Coen brothers' most outlandish moments spring to mind, as might David Croenenberg with a sense of humour.

How profound or otherwise Being John Malkovich is, I still haven't figured out – but in terms of humour, imagination and pure originality, it's up there with anything you've ever set eyes on. We will be lucky to see anything like this for some time to come.