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Now on Video: Human Nature

Despite wittiness, Gondry's latest film underachieves.

by A. Rosenbloom | 2002.10.19

Close to the end of Human Nature , Puff, a man raised as an ape, returns to the woods where he was raised in hopes of living in true freedom. Before he sheds all of his clothing, he meets his mother for the first time. When she requests that he "drop her a line" he replies that he cannot because he is an ape, and apes do not drop lines. Her reaction, much different from that of the audience's, is one of total understanding and slight sadness. This is just another moment of absurdity in the mad world created by Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry.

Kaufman is the writer of the brilliantly strange Being John Malkovich, and Michel Gondry is the director of just plain brilliant music videos and commercials. While this match-up seems to be one made in moviemaking heaven (not to mention Spike Jonze riding along as a producer), the finished product somehow falls short of its expected greatness. It's almost as if Gondry and Kaufman have not conferred on every aspect of the weird world they invented. Yes, their concept is unique and there are moments of such wit and intelligent farce that the film’s shortcomings are almost forgivable. The problem is that while the film attempts to be set in the real world so perfectly rendered by Jonze in Being John Malkovich, it too often falls into the allegorical realm that is home to the Tenenbaum family.

In an attempt to spur self-examination, most of Human Nature is set in a world only slightly skewed from our own. Every so often, however, Gondry takes over and takes us to a place that seems to be derived from one of the visually stunning music videos he created for Bjork. Characters who were walking down a city street in one scene are suddenly flying to and from tree branches and swimming under rapidly spinning skies. Gondry is obviously trying to accentuate the differences between pure nature and manmade civilization. Unfortunately, the nature sequences are so jarring that they feel like a fantasy or dream, and it feels awkward when the characters return to society. By themselves, the two respective environments are well developed. The realm of natural splendor is full of freedom from responsibility; civilization is dirty, claustrophobic and seems to be victimized by a constant windstorm. When the environments are juxtaposed, it seems as if Kaufman and Gondry were each writing and directing their own movies.

The characters are just as sparsely developed as the world in which they live. Puff (Rhys Ifans) is the natural man. Raised as an ape since early childhood, he is "discovered" by Nathan and Lila (Tim Robbins and Patricia Arquette, respectively) while on a nature hike. Lila has sympathy for Puff, and she should, considering she has spent much of her life surviving in the wild. Lila’s has spent her childhood and parts of her adult life as a victim of a hormonal disorder which causes hair to grow all over her body. Unfortunately, Nathan, a priggish scientist with a psychotically puritanical upbringing, does not share her sentiments. He sees Puff as a chance of a lifetime. Nathan has been attempting to teach mice table manners as part of a federally funded program, but he decides to teach Puff good etiquette instead. In the process, Nathan loses his long-standing virginity, falls prey to his strangely seductive French (sort of) assistant, and ends up having to tell his story from the grave.

All of the elements are there, and the actors are all ready and willing to take on the task at hand, but Gondry is the one player who is not up to the challenge. While Spike Jonze was able to draw perfectly quirky performances from every actor in Being John Malkovich, Gondry only really concentrates on Ifans' perfectly realized wild man. Robbins and Arquette have individual moments of wit and comedy, but for most of the film they seem nervously aware of the camera and look uncomfortable in their roles. It is unfortunate to watch Gondry unable to handle all that he is asked to, but some of the blame also lies with Kaufman. While matching the success of his first effort was surely unrealistic, Human Nature is a full five or six drafts away from perfection.

There are substantial holes in Nathan and Lila's characters. Despite seeing the
errors of his upbringing, Nathan feels the need to subject Puff to a similar fate. Lila, once a nature writer and feminist, decides to drop all of her morals when presented with the mere prospect of being someone's girlfriend. Kaufman has not only underdeveloped his main characters, but the supporting ones as well. Rosie Perez, as Lila's intelligence-obsessed electrolysis expert, is not given nearly enough screen time. These characters, as well as many of the main issues in the film are simply touched on and never fully dramatized.

Despite its underachievement, we cannot call Human Nature a failure. Kaufman is smart enough and Gondry is clever enough that when their ideas come together in harmony, the result is comically fresh. It is a shame, however, that Gondry, a genius of the short form, could not move to the longer format with more success. This is his first outing though, and he is clearly just getting his feet wet. As long as Gondry keeps directing and Kaufman keeps writing, the remains hope that in the future we will see a more polished union between the two.

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