Charlie Kaufman was the ‘it’ screenwriter of 2002. He wrote the almost indescribable Adaptation and turned Chuck Barris’ autobiography about being a game show host/CIA operative into Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. However, almost completely missed by critics and audiences alike was Kaufman’s scathing indictment of our current societal free-fall, Human Nature.

Like Kaufman’s other works, including the enjoyably warped Being John Malkovich, Human Nature doesn’t have a very neat and tidy plot summary. Adding to the complexity is the film’s focus on a trio of people and their respective back stories. Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) is a scientist interested in the study of etiquette–his current time is spent teaching mice table manners. When he meets the hirsute Lila Jute (Patricia Arquette), a woman who spent a significant portion of her life living naked in the woods, sparks fly. When the couple comes across Puff (Rhys Ifans), a man who has been raised like an ape by his crackpot father, they take him to Bronfman’s lab and begin to school him in the ways of being a true gentleman. Much to the displeasure of Bronfman, Puff has no interest in learning manners and only seems interested in engaging in the most carnal of pleasures.

Sadly, this plot description is far too short (I failed to mention, for instance, that Bronfman narrates much of the material from Heaven) to give anyone a good idea of the textured subtleties and small nuances Kaufman and director Michael Gondry took the time to include that make the whole that much stronger, original and captivatingly bizarre.

Best known as Hugh Grant’s off-his-rocker roommate in Notting Hill, Ifans is perfectly cast as Puff. I find it rather doubtful that many other actors in Hollywood could so cleverly and touchingly display the range of emotions from sophistication to a lust so strong it forces him to start humping a waitresses leg while she is trying to serve drinks.

In the end, I find myself traveling in circles, wondering whether Kaufman’s projects are unconventionally entertaining because they are so unusual or unusual because they are so unconventionally entertaining. Either way, it’s a rare predicament to be in–a win win situation with a Hollywood film.

chris neumer

yes, it's true:

Before Being John Malkovich was made, Charlie Kaufman was a writer for TV shows Get a Life and Ned and Stacey.