Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Human Nature Is Funny and Strange; So Is This Movie, March 20, 2002
Remember "Being John Malkovich"? Charlie Kaufman, who wrote that strange movie, is the writer of "Human Nature," a strange but very intelligent film. This time the task of director is handed to Michel Gondry from France, famous for his music video clips made for Bjork ("Human Behavior" and others). But don't be put off by his profile because Gondry wisely avoids any flashy techiniques you might associate his MTV profile with. In fact, his fashion often seems very orthodox. "Human Nature," Kaufman's newest produced film, deals with four persons trapped in a maze of love, or sexual desire (call it human nature) ... so to speak. As is the case with "Being John Malkovich," Kaufman's style easily defies our ready-made concept of movies, so I just tell you what you see. Tim Robbins (one of his best turn) is a scientist who spends his time trying to teach proper table manners to white mice. A nature writer Patricia Arquette, hairiest woman in the movie history, falls in love with him. Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest, a grown-up man (Rhys Ifans of "Notting Hill"), who believes that he is an ape, is found, and the Tim immediately got interested. He contemplates: "Let's educate him as a human." Well, after naming him "Puff," with a help of an electric collar and some nude photos, Dr. Robbins tries to 'cure' Puff of his nasty, die-hard habits of showing 'human nature' or sexual desire, explicitly in the public. While the experiment proceeds, love relations got complicated as a famale assistant Gabrielle (played by wonderful Miranda Otto, seen in "Thin Red Line" and "What Lies Beneath," with too obvious French accent) is involved. The love triangle gets more confused after eventual inclusion of Puff, who slowly starts to change himself from an ape-like man with long beard -- Rhys Ifans at first looks like "It's" man of Monty Python shows -- and ... guess the rest of it for yourself. Anyway, Kaufman's creative power does not belong to the traditional sense of storytelling, and we know it. Just like "Being John Malkovich," "Human Nature" is full of brilliant ideas, but the whole touch of the film is less outlandish than the other. Actually, you may say some scenes are direct parody of methods used in classic Hollywood films, and some scenes, especailly opening ten minutes, even remind you of films such as "American Beauty" and "A Life Less Ordinary." By saying that, I do not mean the lack of originality; rather, the director Gondry is cleverly challenging us with unique skills shown in these film, deftly using them to his purpose. And the most amusing thing about "Human Nature" is its ever-changing relationships of love between four characters, among which Puff's sadly too human nature plays the most prominent role. The process of Puff's "education" contains funny, but very poignant moments, and what we laughed at loud in "American Pie" (my favorite) we see in a completely different light. At same time, the film mocks American values very slyly. See, for example, how Tim Robbin's scientist is easily captivated by a phoney French Gabrielle with dubious accent (and don't miss the quick change of her French 'room decoration'!!). Also of note are Robert Forster and Mary Kay Place's forster parents, whose dead-pan humor leaves us great impression in spite of their brief screen time. This off-beat film probably ends too neatly after many elements are thrown in the film, but I didn't feel the film is confused. I admit "Human Nature" may not draw a lot of critical or commercial attention; it is a shame, though, because it is a very clever film, and even if it is not totally coherent or logical, it at least gives us fresh and powerful talent upcoming in this industry. For that only, it should be called something, something precious.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Planet of Patricia Arquette Naked, December 20, 2002
By A Customer
I rented this movie recently betting that the many talented individuals involved would deliver an unusual and thought provoking movie. I was not disappointed. I think "Human Nature" is worth seeing. The movie follows the characters through a complex maze of human desire and repulsion, ultimately delivering an ending which is although not idyllic, truthful nonetheless.
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Planet of the Apes, April 30, 2002
Coming off the unquestioned success that was "Being John Malkovich", Charlie Kaufman (and Spike Jonze, who produces here) again brings us a comedy that'll have you scratching your head in wonderment, your mouth agape in awe, and your belly laughing hysterically, even though you're not quite sure if what you're seeing is really all that funny. "Human Nature", like "BJM", is a film that's tough to define, tough to comprehend, but not so tough to enjoy.It's a film that purports to be one about big ideas -- concerning, duh, human nature -- but that really doesn't give much weight to those ideas. I got the feeling that the ideas were just the hanger off which Kaufman and Co. could drape comic set-pieces, gags, and pratfalls. If you look at it as an intellectual exercise, it does not work. But as a loony farce, it's terribly hilarious, in a rather bent sort of way. One of my favourite sequences shows the ridiculous tableaus Dr. Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) and his assistants assembled inside the observation cage of Puff (Rhys Ifans), a feral man found in the woods. At one point, a fake fireplace turns up; later, we see Puff in an opera box seat, dressed in tuxedo and clapping enthusiastically to the sounds coming out of a portable radio. Another favourite moment shows the comic repression essayed by Nathan's parents, played with deadpan glee by Robert Forster and Mary Kay Place. Director Michel Gondry doesn't mimic the baroque expressiveness that Spike Jonze found in "Being John Malkovich". Instead, he goes for stark cartoonery. Watch as Ifans flies through the air more than a dozen times after being zapped by an electronic collar. Or the sweet (and subversive) song Lila (Patricia Arquette) delivers as an ode to her hyper-hirsuteness. Or Robbins, recounting his part of the story, ignorantly repeating the same silly joke over and over until the audience is forced to laugh at him. "Human Nature" makes no attempt at reconstructing reality; instead it focuses all its energies on creating a reality, one that's malleable and morbid, twisted but bright. Kaufman's script plays more like a series of Saturday Night Live skits than a follow up to the nineties' most popular existential cult classic. He revels in his one-joke characters, but makes sure that the one-joke is as strong as can be (the central conceit of Ifans character, that he was raised in the woods by a man who "thought" he was an ape, was enough in itself to draw me to the film). And except for what he gives to Robbins' character (who's speeches, even though they're *meant* to be ultra-formal, were still often distracting and clumsy), the dialogue is fresh and frequently funny. "Eet izz like 'Sophie's Choice'," says Nathan's assistant, Gabrielle. "Exzept no, eet izz 'Nathan's Choice'." The narrative he's constructed skips and swings all over the place, unburdened by any and all film conventions. It's told from three different perspectives, testimonial style, a technique that doesn't work in the film's nascent stages, but does as it nears its conclusion. And it gives the audience ample opportunity to get to know the three main characters, independently and as a unit. Robbins, in the beginning, appears ill at ease playing Dr. Bronfman. In much of the comic work he's turned in over his career, Robbins is fine at playing idiotic idiot-savants ("The Hudsucker Proxy", "Bull Durham"). But he tends to have trouble with quiet solemnity ("The Shawshank Redemption") even when it's within the context of a farce like this one. As the movie moves along, though, Robbins takes centre stage -- he is the sun in this particular universe; all the other actors revolve around him -- and he becomes more relaxed. And more funny, even during his straighter moments. Arquette plays Lila's discomfort and pathos well, and gets her innocence just right. And she's super sexy, even when covered top to toe by hair. In the film's middle third, when her obsessions take over and she's meant to be soulless and creepy, you still can't help feeling for her, caught in such a ridiculous predicament. And more so in this one than in her other films, Arquette's stalactite teeth appear to be a character all to themselves. Gondry films her erratic mouth in such a way that the audience feels a threat of attack (an odd character point, that). Ifans, in the film's most showy role, steals the show. But he doesn't do it in an outlandish way. He could have barged around the set, grunting and groaning, and relying on his bare bottom to draw as many laughs as possible. But instead, Ifans has to play sophistico and Cro-Magnon, sometimes all in one scene, and always subtly. He is achingly funny, terribly tragic, cold and manipulative, open and warm-hearted. An egoless actor in a spindly naked Englishman's body, Ifans is perfectly cast and perfect in execution. While not as easy a crowd-pleaser as Kaufman's previous work, "Human Nature" has its fair share of oddball moments. Enough so that anyone looking for another iconoclastic romp will do well enough if they look here.
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