Then he went home and worked out his angst with the puppets. So freaking creepy!
Would you like to be inside my skin. See what I see. Feel what I feel. Think what I think is the central thesis of this film.
I would actually like to present a much more cynical take on this theme!
Craig claims that he wants to "become someone else". But... he really doesn't.
When he's inside Malkovich. He doesn't want to experience a slice of Malkovich's life (like everyone else does). When he has control of Malkovich, he is himself but only enjoys the perks of possessing the actor's body. He likes Malkovich because Malkovich enables him to fuck Maxine and become a world-celebrity with his puppeteering due to John's previous fame.
He doesn't want to see the world from Malkovich's eyes. He just wants to exploit Malkovich to realize his own dreams.
I think this is an important part of the theme.
What artists present themselves as vs what they really want.
Craig presents himself as this suffering artists. He claims that his puppeteering is a way to connect to other people "to feel what they feel" and all that sentiment. He claims that he wants to reach the emotions of other people.
But in reality... he's just a self-centred horndog.
Craig says that he wants Maxine to understand him. But it's just a front to get her to fuck him. He doesn't care about Maxine's emotional state at all. She clearly doesn't want him but he hounds after her in spite of that. When he finally has Malkoviche's body -- he doesn't even realize that Maxine is drifting away from him
until the freaking TV tells him so! I mean, how blind is this guy!? <45>
It's love but with one-way traffic. As long as he gets to screw her, he doesn't consider much how she thinks or feels, since she's already fulfilled her function for him.
This is also seen in how callously he handles his wife. He locks her in a freaking cage with a monkey! For all his proclamations about wanting to connect to other people, he doesn't factor in their emotions at all. It's all him, him, him! All that bleeding-hearts speak is just a facade about wanting to possess them.
I think this is foreshadowed during that hilarious puppet show. It begins with a play about people's tortured love for each other. Yet it ends with them freaking humping the walls. For all his lofty sentiment, he's a horndog!
I also think there is a message in the movie about how this is general for all actors. When Craig assumes control of Malkovich and watches the documentary about himself, everyone is speaking loftily about how he touches the souls of other people with his work yet it's all rather... phoney-sounding. Their grandstanding yet offering no concrete examples or anything that sounds like genuine sentiment. It's all rather abstract and wishy-washy. And Craig himself embodies none of the noble attributes the documentary proclaims him as. It's as if the entire society has bought into Craig's world-image. Say that you want to connect with people, but don't actually care about their emotions and just seak to satisfy yourself!
And... uhh... that's my attempt to find something thematic in Being John Malkovich!
EDIT: I think this dynamic is present in the final shot of the film too. Maxine is finally happy, having forsaken her Queen-bitch persona. Yet, despite her bliss, Craig is still pathetically calling out to her from inside their daughters head. Once again, her happiness doesn't matter to him, it's all about what he wants.
