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Verdict: A real head trip.

Details: Starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and John Malkovich. Rated R for profanity and sexuality. 1 hour, 52 minutes.

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Review: Admit it. You'd like to get inside the head of a movie star and see life through his eyes, even if just for 15 minutes.

Even if the star isn't Brad Pitt, but an actor whose own 15 minutes of fame trickled out a while back.

That's the jumping-off point of the wiggy, genre-bending "Being John Malkovich," which is definitely not a documentary about the "Dangerous Liaisons" actor.

John Cusack stars as a shaggy-haired puppeteer named Craig, whose disfiguring coif is outdone only by the brown frizz-mop worn by Cameron Diaz, playing his wife, Lotte. Craig is the sort of dreary, serious artiste who names one of his puppetry routines "Dance of Despair and Illusion." He's the guy you don't want to get stuck talking to at a party.

Beaten down and broke, Craig takes a job as a file clerk for Dr. Lester (Orson Bean), whose office is on floor 7 1/2 of a Manhattan office tower. This is a truncated space that forces workers to stoop around and scuttle like bugs. In this Kafka-meets-"Brazil" environment, Craig makes two big discoveries. One is Maxine (Catherine Keener), a sardonic co-worker he falls for, even though her tongue is sharper than her teeth. The other is a tiny door, leading directly into the cerebral cortex of ... John Malkovich.

For 15 minutes, anyone who passes through this door can see, feel and taste whatever the actor happens to be experiencing at the time, whether he's ordering bath mats from a catalog or making love. Then, the visitor gets ejected onto a shoulder of the New Jersey Turnpike. (Don't ask; you have to accept the movie's dream logic at face value.)

Ever practical, Maxine sees this literal head trip as a moneymaking opportunity. For Lotte, who checks out this sci-fi portal, her 15 minutes as Malkovich is a life-changing moment, ultimately turning her relationship with Craig and Maxine into a spectacularly twisted triangle.

The first produced script from writer Charlie Kaufman and the feature debut from video director Spike Jonze, "Being John Malkovich" is a late-millennial "Alice in Wonderland" for grown-ups in search of some existential giggles. In the words of one character, who's trying to figure out the implications of the Malkovich mind-meld, it's "a metaphysical can of worms." The movie toys with big concepts — the nature of identity, the lust for celebrity, sexual desire that blurs gender lines, the illusion of free will — without ever stopping long enough to state a thesis. It's playfully profound one moment, gonzo the next. And it's often hysterically funny.

The movie's dream-logic plot is enlivened by prickly grace notes. Craig and Lotte inexplicably own exotic pets, including a chimp whose subtitled flashback to his jungle childhood is one of the movie's eccentric delights. The movie's climax includes a frenetic chase — not through city streets, but Malkovich's subconscious mind. And if you ever wanted to see Malkovich in an evening gown, boasting great cleavage, this is your movie.

Screenwriter Kaufman has said he wrote the script without an outline. You can tell. It's a refreshing vacation from the predictable, stacked plot-points of mainstream studio releases. The movie's pleasures are in its journey, not in any final destination, and you can understand why the script attracted such a strong cast and a roster of producers including R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, who knows a thing or two about the oddness of fame.

Cusack buries his usual rogue charm to play a loser. His scruffy Craig doesn't realize he's out of his league when courting Keener, whose sexy, whiplash sarcasm is nicely showcased here.

Diaz makes a sympathetic drudge finding love in an unexpected way, and Malkovich demonstrates tremendous good humor poking fun at his own celebrity. (Also a good sport, Charlie Sheen shows up, mocking his bad-boy image.)

There's wacky poetic justice in the structure of "Being John Malkovich." Though most of its characters all want to be the same person, the movie itself forges a unique identity unlike anything else you've seen at the theater. It's a loopy original.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service

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