By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Michael Gondry
Starring: Ken Magee | Patricia Arquette | Peter Dinklage | Rhys Ifans | Tim Robbins
Country: france, united_states
Year: 2002
Running time: 96
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0219822
Clinton says: “Charlie Kaufman, the writer behind the wildly inventive BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, teams up with another influential music video director, Michel Goundry, who’s visual flair has elevated Bjork’s videos to near-perfect mini-movies (MALKOVICH director Spike Jones also stepped up from the music video ranks, and not coincidentally has also worked with Bjork) to tell a tale that is every bit as original, eccentric, and savagely funny as you would expect.
“Describing the plot of this societal farce is a chore, as a mere description only outlines the lunacy without profiling the deeper emotions beneath the film. But here goes anyway: Lila (Arquette) is a woman born with hair all over her body, and for a while we follow the story of her life, from side-show freak, to famous naturalist, to meeting the man she is convinced she loves, nerdy behavioral scientist Nathan (Robbins). After having her precious hair removed with electrolysis, she marries her scientist (who has a strange repulsion to anything ape-like), and one day during a nature hike in the woods they discover a man who has been raised by apes (the marvelous Ifans).
“The scientist takes the ape-man back to his lab to study him, and subjects him to a program of brutal experiments that will turn him into a gentleman of society. In short, it’s Eliza Doolitle meets Tarzan by way of Dr. Caligari and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Got that? Of course there’s much more, and the film is ripe with pathos, good humor, dark humor, musical numbers, and some very very strange wild jungle lust. I loved the originality and daring of this indie comedy, and am glad that the delightfully fun quirkiness of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH is once again about to hit the theatres.”
Laura says: “Technically, the film is very inventive, with director Gondry mining his music vid experience to create a fantastical environment for his unusual characters. HUMAN NATURE boasts the best blend of live and animatronic mice
since BABE. But HUMAN NATURE just never takes wing and to flies to the giddy heights it needed, instead remaining earthbound in obvious notions.” 2 1/2 cats
For Laura’s complete review: “http://www.reelingreviews.htm/humannature.htm”
Nathaniel T. says: “HUMAN NATURE (as everyone remotely familiar with the film can tell you) is written by Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote one of the best screenplays of the past 5 years with BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, and deals with the tricky definition of humanity. The basic idea of HUMAN NATURE is that civilization is hard to justify. Why should we be worrying about what fork is correct to use with our salad when we could be off fornicating in the trees? Well, maybe that’s not doing the film justice. It is actually a reasonably entertaining farce that contains some very funny moments. The acting isn’t great on the whole, but Rhys Ifans and Patricia Arquette are actually very good in their respective roles. Ifans plays Puff, a primal young man who is captured by Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) for an elaborate experiment against the wishes of Nathan’s girlfriend Lila (Arquette). The film is actually about Arquette’s character (until an ill-advised perspective switch about half way through the film), who developed an odd condition during puberty. It seems that Lila has an unnatural amount of body hair (not to mention very funky fangs). Well, to make a long story short, the film is about sex. It poses the question: what good are table manners if you’re not getting any? No joke. That’s the moral. Or at least that is one of the themes. Its an odd one, and one I don’t think can support a full film. I will be shooting a nomination Ifans way, and perhaps Arquette, but I can’t say I recommend the film.”