Human Nature

Coming on the back of the hugely popular Being John Malkovich (1999) that was, like this, written by Charlie Kaufman and which was directed by Spike Jonze, who is a co-producer here, this first feature by Michel Gondry did not have anywhere near the same level of success. This is not altogether difficult to understand as it did not have any big name stars (Tim Robbins is fairly big but more as a name than a star) and as a satire it is more anachronistically Swiftean in its basic thematic opposition, neatly indicated by the title, than thorough-going and many would have found it simply laborious and discomfiting in its ludicrous premise.

Patricia Arquette plays an attractive woman whose body is covered with hair and who lives in the forest and writes nature books. She decides get electro-dialysis in order to catch a man who turns out to be a neurotic scientist (Tim Robbins) who is teaching table manners to mice. While on a nature walk they discover a man (Rhys Ifans) living in the wilderness who thinks he's an ape. They take him back to Nathan's lab where as ""Puff" he is slowly inculcated in the ways of civilization. Nathan however falls for Gabrielle (Miranda Otto) his faux-French assistant and the spurned Lila returns to nature with Puff but things go wrong when Nathan comes looking for Lila

As satire Human Nature is rather one note and perhaps the most engaging aspect of the film is the way in excellent cast perform their allotted absurdities with straight-faced aplomb with the always rewarding  Ifans standing out . Gondry (one can thanks heavens that Steven Soderbergh, who was originally to direct this, left the project) delivers Kaufman's script with evident but suitably measured, tongue-in-cheek style. And yes, that is Hilary Duff standing in for a teenage Patricia Arquette.

 

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