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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Malkovich, Malkovich?

The other day I had a fleeting thought, and since fleeting thoughts are sometimes my favorite kinds of thoughts, I thought I'd share it & pose a hypothetical question for you all to answer.

What if you could be anyone you wanted to be, that is - assume the body/identity of anyone you wanted, for say, 30 days? Whose life would you borrow? Why?

Of course those thoughts made me recall the movie Being John Malkovich, and one scene in particular. In this scene, actor John Malkovich discovers that not only is there a portal into his brain, but that a down-on-his luck puppetier (played by John Cusack) has been selling admission tickets to enter the portal and silently observe his life.

What happens when you enter your own personality portal? Thank goodness someone put the clip on YouTube so you can find out right now!



My husband and I both love this part of the movie and have a little inside joke pertaining to it. Whenever we're around a person who seems a little pompous and self-involved, one of us will mutter to the other, "Malkovich, Malkovich?" under our breath. Gets us giggling every time.

Being JM itself is an okay movie, but not one of my all-time faves or anything. It's like other movies written by Charlie Kaufman such as Adaptation (in which we see Meryl Streep get supremely and convincingly high on a crazy Everglade orchid), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (a film I mistook for an acid flashback the first time I viewed it). I don't always like them the first time I see them, but I'm always intrigued enough to give them a second viewing at a later date. After the second viewing I am usually a fan, and the more times I see them the more I like them.

So anywho, who wants to answer my question? "Enquiring minds want to know!" Who would you be for 30 days with no consequences? Whose life would you overtake for that period of time? Someone famous? Not? Do tell, if you please. Come on... spill!