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Writer Charlie Kaufman definitely has a style of comedy all his own. Much like his first foray into feature length films, Being John Malkovich, Kaufman also brings a music video director to his latest script for the screen.
This time it is French director Michel Gondry, previously known for his more artistic work with Bjork’s music videos, who tackles Kaufman’s extreme head-trip entitled Human Nature.
The story follows a trio of interrelated characters. Lila (Patricia Arquette) is a lonely nature writer covered with abundantly thick, black body hair who lived in the woods until her sexual appetite drove her back to humanity.
Her hair-removing cosmetologist (Rosie Perez) sets her up with Nathan (Tim Robbins), an anal-retentive scientist who is teaching table manners to mice.
Lila and Nathan fall not-so-madly in love and end up stumbling upon an ape-like Puff (Rhys Ifans, who stole the scene in 1999’s Notting Hill) while hiking in the woods. Nathan realizes that mice are menial and he cages up the wild-man Puff in his lab, intending to make him more civilized.
The three are bound by conformity, which is driven home when Nathan advises Puff on his first day out on the town, “Remember – when in doubt, don’t ever do what you really want to do.”
As he did with Malkovich, Kaufman uses his bizarre characters to demonstrate a larger social problem. This time it is humanity’s long running tension between primal urges and societal pressures to control these urges.
Although the film drags on at times, perhaps because director Gondry is perhaps too used to video and commercial time, it succeeds due to its more over-the-top wacky scenes. Arquette shines in her role as the insecure Lila, baring both her body and voice in this risky alternative to popular Hollywood films.
Go see this film if you loved Malkovich, or even if you didn’t love it but were intrigued by its adventurous spirit.
Where else can you see mice using the ‘correct’ fork at the dinner table and a scene in Hooters all in the same film?
Human Nature can now be seen in a theater near you…but only go if you think you can handle it!
