Being Cameron Diaz

Dear Cameron Diaz, I apologize.

Sometimes you can watch a film and feel as though you got it; the whole story seems clear. Sometimes you end up rewatching the same film again and again, and you enjoy it, but you miss what should have noticed much earlier. And then there are the films that are complete mysteries that are always revealing deeper and deeper layers of meaning.

I just watched “Being John Malkovich”…again. And I realized that I had missed the point of the movie.

This is not John Malkovich’s film.

It all belongs to Cameron Diaz.

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Let’s look back at this film that was released in the miracle year of 1999 (now seen as one of the great years for Hollywood). “Being John Malkovich”, directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, is the story of a neglected puppeteer (Craig Schwartz, played by John Cusack) who lives with a very devoted and caring wife who wants him to find a job (Diaz’s Lotte Schwartz). He finds a job (nimble fingers give him an advantage with all of his filing duties), finds himself drawn to a fellow worker (Catherine Keener as Maxine in, shamefully, the only Oscar-nominated role in the film), and discovers a way to become John Malkovich…at least for fifteen minutes.

Okay, that was a very schematic look at the film. For those of you in the know, this is surrealism at its finest. The 7 ½ floor that the office is situated on (I wonder if J.K. Rowling is a fan); the portal hidden behind a filing cabinet; the POV from Malkovich, etc.; it never tries to explain its effects, or why Malkovich is the particular portal and not another actor (yes, Charlie Sheen is possibly a vessel as well, but the film does not explore that, and neither will I). I respect it for these reasons, its palette change from dull pastels or grey and blue to colour, and the fact that it assumes that love conquers all (a running theme in any Kaufman film). And then there was Cameron Diaz.

I really did not think much of her when this came out. There had been “The Mask”, a film I avoided until it ended up on TV, “There’s Something About Mary”, which I really did enjoy and admire (she was such a good sport with that hairdo), but I did not expect her to be featured in her next film as a frumpy, badly dressed housewife with a love of exotic animals and a hairstyle described as a “sick poodle” (I prefer to think of it as “abandoned cotton candy”). If an actress is determined to make herself unattractive for the role she plays – see Charlize Theron in “Monster” and Nicole Kidman in “The Hours” – I pay attention, and I wonder: is it just a trick or a plot for the upcoming award season (both Theron and Kidman did win Oscars)? Do they actually care about the ones portrayed (all real characters)?

I believe they do, and I also believe that there is a terrible demand on actresses to maintain a look that is often just a lucky break. To step away from it is a clear sign that they wanted to be taken more seriously. Perhaps the studios simply did not know what to do with beautiful women who clearly have talent.

Jonze and Kaufman knew the score. And Diaz was clearly eager to play a role where her looks would not be the most important part of the character’s importance.

But why is this film perfect for Pride?

Here we see a woman who loves animals and is open to the adventure involved in entering the body of another person. I keep thinking back to her first trip through the portal to Malkovich and her comments in the car when the all-too-brief moment passes:

“It’s like [John Malkovich] has a vagina. John Malkovich’s feminine side…”

And the conclusion she confesses to her husband is still touching:

“I’m a transsexual.”

And we believe her. Why wouldn’t we? It is very hard to imagine them having any sort of sexual interest in each other (there is talk, on her side, about having a baby, quietly rebuffed by Craig). She discovers that Maxine is quite taken with her, and arranges to have sex with her…through Malkovich. Apart from actual surgery, you do not get more Trans than that. I would have loved to have entered the mind – ha, ha, see what I did there? – of Jonze and Kaufman as they developed this idea. It is a truly radical moment of sexual freedom that we have not seen on film before, and it should be memorialized and studied.

And does Love conquer all (Amor vincit omnia)? Well, it is a Kaufman film. There is a pregnancy, a deeper dive into Malkovich and his subconscious (truly one of the funniest moments of the film…and the most disturbing), the discovery of the real use of the portal (Lotte almost takes a ride with the right crowd, but instead chooses…well, go and see), and a move from the grey concrete of New York and New Jersey (its famous Turnpike plays a pivotal role) to water and sunlight.

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Enjoy it, study it, and appreciate that we are living in our own skins, and that the strings that pull us are not permanent. Cameron Diaz’s Lotte is still one of my favourite transgressive characters in film history, becoming more beautiful as she finally asserts herself (the title of this article is a key moment of the film), falls into a real loving relationship, and survives to become…herself.

And as the film proclaims:

“We love her, Craig.”

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