Being John Malkovich

By RICHARD CORLISS

How would you like to fall down a tunnel, land inside actor John Malkovich's body for 15 minutes, then be dumped next to the New Jersey Turnpike--all for $200 (tolls included). That's the weird, beguiling premise of writer Charlie Kaufman's absurdist romance. Jonze, a music-video whiz and an actor (Three Kings), has the vexing habit of forcing his attractive stars (John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener) to deliver their big scenes through clumps of matted hair. But he keeps the wheels spinning on this funny-peculiar story of people so desperate that they would pay to be anyone else. Even John Malkovich.

--By Richard Corliss