Queering John Malkovich
Being John Malkovich (1999), directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, is an peculiar and unconventional film that explores the themes of identity and self – and takes an unexpectedly queer approach in doing so by exploring the relationship between characters Lotte and Maxine.
The film follows Craig (John Cusack), a struggling puppeteer who one day discovers a portal that leads directly into the mind of actor John Malkovich (John Malkovich). Craig soon realizes that he can control Malkovich’s actions and decides to use this to his advantage, aiming to achieve fame and fortune. However, as the film unfolds, the plot delves deeper into the psyche of its main cast of characters – Craig, his nurturing wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz), his seductive and self-serving coworker Maxine (Catherine Keener), and the one and only John Malkovich – and explores their innermost fears and desires.
One day, Lotte steps into the portal and, upon doing so, realizes that it just feels right; Lotte experiences euphoria from being in Malkovich’s body and states that they are transgender, even declaring that they want to proceed with gender-affirming surgery. An unsupportive Craig immediately shoots them down, saying this is just a phase and simply the “thrill of seeing through somebody else’s eyes.” Lotte meets Maxine – who they remark is “pretty” as if foreshadowing the rest of the movie – who convinces Craig to let Lotte step into the portal one more time. While Lotte is in Malkovich’s mind, Maxine calls him to arrange a date. At the date, through Malkovich’s eyes, Lotte begins falling in love with Maxine.
The mysterious and machiavellian Maxine is initially presented as straight – her persona evoking the image of a femme-fatale who successfully seduces Craig and John Malkovich and only later comes to experience queer love and attraction. Maxine states that she reciprocates Lotte’s feelings, but only when Lotte is in Malkovich’s mind – in essence when Lotte shares a male body with Malkovich. However, as the movie progresses, Maxine becomes increasingly attracted to Lotte, and can no longer deny her feelings. Without revealing too much of the film’s ending, Lotte and Maxine end up together at the end, a happy queer couple raising a child.
Maxine and Lotte’s relationship in its first stages reeks of compulsory heterosexuality ( comp-het for short) meaning the societal expectation that everyone should be, and is, heterosexual. Comp-het leads individuals to assume that they can only be attracted to the opposite sex, even if that may not be the case. For example, Maxine’s initial attraction to Lotte is something Maxine struggles to accept, as it goes against all social conditioning that dictates she should only be attracted to men. Maxine’s eventual and delayed self-discovery highlights the impact that comp-het can have on an individual’s understanding of their own desires.
While one can argue that the transgender themes of the movie are profoundly unexplored, the film also opens way to the interpretation of the idea that Lotte identifies as a man in order to justify their attraction to a woman – in other words, Lotte experiences a similar form of comp-het. According to this reasoning, if Lotte as a woman is experiencing attraction to another woman, then they must not be a woman at all, and instead be a man! Lotte’s euphoria in Malkovich’s body raises the following questions: is Lotte actually a man, a queer woman excited to see the world through a man’s eyes, or possibly non-binary? Perhaps due to the year of its production and setting, Being John Malkovich leaves several questions about queerness and the complexities of queer identity unfathomable, but it remains certain that the film would have been enriched by a deeper dive into Lotte’s gender identity. However, the film nonetheless remains a compelling and thought-provoking piece of queer cinema and representation.