Human Nature Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)April 6th, 2002
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Charlie Kaufman's previous script - the Oscar-nominated Being John Malkovich - wasn't as much about odd people (though they were still slightly unusual) as it was an odd situation. In Human Nature, however, those tables are dramatically turned, since the film focuses on people with serious ape issues: One person is deathly afraid of them, another was raised like one, while the third might pass for one in a police lineup.
Nature opens with all three characters being interviewed by various groups of people. The scraggly Puff (Rhys Ifans, The Shipping News) is testifying before the U.S. Congress, Lila (Patricia Arquette, Little Nicky) is fielding questions from the cops, and Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins, AntiTrust) appears to be telling his story to the Big G up in heaven (with a bullet hole in his forehead, lest we wonder how he got there). As they spin their tales, we slowly begin to wrap our minds around Nature's wacky plot.
Nathan was an adopted only-child to a pair of '50s stereotype parents (Mulholland Drive's Robert Forster and My First Mister's Mary Kay Place) who weren't very loving but did manage to teach him that making a social faux pas is probably the worst thing you could ever do. He always knew which fork to use, but that didn't stop Nathan from being totally freaked out when he saw a pen of smelly simians during a trip to the zoo and wondered how man could have evolved from such a disgusting creature.
Meanwhile, Lila experienced a pretty normal life until the age of 12, when her hormones decided she'd be better off sprouting hair than boobs. With a thick, black fur covering most of her body, Lila decided to abandon the trappings of modern society and live in the woods for several years (cue song-and-dance number - one of two penned by Kaufman and sung by Arquette - complete with cute, furry animals). She became a famous author, but horniness drove her back to a "normal" life in the city.
Attempting to fit in, Lila regularly sees a cosmetologist (Rosie Perez, Riding in Cars With Boys) who performs electrolysis and fixes her up with Nathan, now a scientist intent on teaching table manners to mice. They meet, fall in love and, quite accidentally, stumble upon the raised-like-an-ape Puff during a walk in the woods. Nathan decides mice are, like, so passé and eagerly begins to teach Puff the ways of a well-mannered gentleman back at his lab...where the scientist begins an affair with his comely assistant (Miranda Otto).
All three characters share one central thread - conformity, a point driven home when Nathan explains to Puff that the best way to act civilized is to, when given a choice, never do what you want. Other bits of information culled from Nature include the following: Arquette does some of her best acting and her shaving scenes are kind of hot; Kaufman has problems figuring out how he wants his stories to end; and French director Michel Gondry, whose previous credits include numerous award-winning television commercials (including that singing bellybutton one) and a bunch of cool videos (such as Björk's similarly titled and wonderfully imaginative "Human Behavior") doesn't fall into the same trappings of other directors from his medium (like, say, Behind Enemy Lines) by not sacrificing substance for style.
1:36 - R for sexuality/nudity and language
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