Human Nature | | Cast : | Patricia Arquette, Tim Robbins | | Director : | Michel Gondry | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 10, 2005 | | Summary | I Wanna See It Cause Hilary Duff's In It, But It's R-Rated! | Content
 | I am a huge fan of Hilary Duff. I heard that she had a small part
in this movie, so I thought about buying it, when just a couple of moments ago, I found out it was rated R. Hilary Duff! In an R-Rated movie? That's unbelievable. If I were interested, I would so buy it! The only R movie I'm allowed to see is the Passion, and I don't plan to see it until MUCH later in my life. I wish they would make a recut version of this film because I can't see it cause I'm ten! * 1 star |
| Rating | | | Date | June 03, 2005 | | Summary | Puff Bronfman ate my Cheerios, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. | Content
| without belaboring the plot, i'll simply say that human nature is a delightful film that really gets the rusty wheels turning in the run-down factory that my mom likes to call "holly's brain." rhys ifans, patricia arquette and tim robbins are a dynamic trio, and miranda otto's character, gabrielle, inspired me to finally read "sophie's choice" (excellent book, i might add). kaufman has a true gift for investigating the nuances of consciousness in a way that is both thought-provoking yet amusing. naturally, the midas touch of michel gondry earns this movie a place in any movie fan's list of bests. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 09, 2005 | | Summary | It's only "Human Nature" | Content
| Men raised as apes. Mannered mice. Women with bad body hair days. Don't expect anything halfway normal in the ironically-titled "Human Nature," the first collaboration between the brilliant Michel Gondry and even more brilliant Charlie Kaufman. Forget style above substance -- this is a thinking man's comedy, quirky and utterly hilarious.
It opens with a dead man, a convicted woman, and a genteel simian-man all speaking of their pasts: Lila (Patricia Arquette) became horribly hirsute when she was a teen -- by twenty, she was "Queen Kong" in a sideshow. Miserable, she retreated to the woods and became a reknowned nature writer. During electrolysis treatment some years later, a nurse offers to set her up with a desperate guy: Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins), a manners-obsessed scientist who is teaching them to white mice.
One day in the woods, Lila and Nathan come across a feral young man they call Puff (Rhys Ifans) -- as explained early on, Puff's father thought he was an ape, and raised his son accordingly. Now Puff is being taught the ways of humanity, as Lila tries to preserve the more primitive things about human beings -- and a warped love triangle results.
Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman recently collaborated on the wonderful, poignant "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," so it's not surprising that their first joint film was also excellent. It's the sort of film that can't be easily pegged as one thing or another -- part comedy, part satire, part blinking question mark. Is it human nature to be naked and free, to be civilized and uptight, or does it lie somewhere in the middle? Are we just animals in clothes, or do humans have something more... or less? "Human Nature" doesn't answer all these questions, but it does make you think about them.
Michel Gondry's quirky style -- he directed some of Bjork's best music videos -- suits this equally quirky movie. He keeps the movie jumping quickly from scene to scene, moving fast enough that you never get bored. And he seems like a kind of directorial minimalist (the afterlife is a white room with a white table and white mist). At other times, he takes slapstick to new heights, lightening up the cerebral tone of the comedy.
The surreal flashbacks and oddball comedy (like Ifans wearing a shock collar) give "Human Nature" cinematic style. But the characters are what really fill up the screen -- Arquette does an excellent job as the tormented Lila, particularly during a beautiful musical number in the woods. Rhys Ifans is even better, whether it's as an uncivilized ape-man, or as an eloquent, rather dapper ape-man.
Dorky scientists, civilized simians and hairy women sound like an idiotic basis for a movie, but Kaufman and Gondry transform it into a smart, strange comedy. Definitely not to be missed. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 18, 2004 | | Summary | Charlie Kaufman shares his thoughts on "Human Nature" | Content
| There is a point to what happens in "Human Nature," but the key things to remember are that (a) the point will never be made explicitly and (b) the point is up to the beholder. So if you need your points clearly and sharply made, then this film written by Charlie Kaufman is gong to befuddle you as much as anything he has ever written. Since that includes "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," that would be a lot of befuddlement.
This film begins with the revelation that Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) is dead, courtesy of a small round bullet hole in his forehead, and somewhere in the afterlife in a room where everything is white. In prison is Lila Jute (Patricia Arquette), and testifying before some Congressional committee is a nattily dressed but strangely bearded man named Puff (Rhys Ifans). Apparently there are issues about being "sorry" that this film will explain, but first we have to get up to speed on how this strange collection of characters came to be strange.
When Lila was 12 years old her hormones caused hair to grow all over her body. Tired of being "Queen Kong" in a side show she goes off into the wild, writes a best selling book with a disparaging view of humanity, and, tired of shaving all over all the time, uses the money to have electrolysis to try and remove her hair. Louise (Rosie Perez), who is doing the electrolysis, thinks she knows a guy who would be perfect for Lila. This would be Nathan.
Nathan is a scientist. As a boy he was taught the importance of table manners by his mother (Mary Kay Place) and father (Robert Forster). Failure to use the right fork for eating his salad meant the young boy was sent to his room without supper. So it is not surprising that today he is busy teaching a pair of white mice table manners. As he explains to Lila, if he can teach table manners to white mice, then he can teach table manners to human beings, which would result in ushering in a golden age of good manners and civility. Helping him in his lab work is the apparently smitten Gabrielle (Miranda Otto), who has decided the best way to come on to Nathan is to use a fake French accent. Despite never having learned the correct film to use from either the wild or the dinner scene in "Titanic," Lila and Nathan begin to go out together. The key to understanding Nathan is to know his simple mantra: "Remember, when in doubt, you should never do what you truly want to do."
One day Lila and Nathan are out in the wood and they come up the feral creature that they bring back to civilization to study. Gabrielle gets the honor of naming the creature and picks "Puff." Nathan goes is not only to teach him about the silverware in a formal dinner setting but all other aspects of high culture. He also wants to stop Puff from humping slide projections of sexy women, and in all of these endeavors uses the same shock aversion therapy that has worked so well with the two white mice (who do the best scene stealing by mice since the original "Babe"). But while Nathan is turning Puff from the Naked Ape into a sophisticated, debonair, man about town, he is torn between Gabrielle and Lila. As for Puff, he would pretty much like to have whoever is left.
I would say that there are competing love triangles in "Human Nature" except that I am pretty sure Lila is the only one capable of love rather than lust. But, of course, what these characters do is not as important as why they do it. The problem is that since the characters do not seem to know why they are doing what they are doing, that makes it a bit difficult for us. Nathan is always a step behind and Gabrielle goes whichever way the wind is blowing. Lila is the most honest of the bunch, which means she is doomed, and Puff is caught in all of the middles of the circumstances developed in the film. Puff also gets most of the good lines, from pointing out at the start that being raised by a man who thinks he is an ape is pretty much the same as actually being raised by apes to his recognition of a stage that exists before a beloved teacher takes a student from crayons to perfume.
I missed this film when it was first released but checked it out because I discovered after watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" that there was a movie scripted by Charlie Kaufman that I had missed. Certainly "Human Nature" is the least of the films that I have mentioned here, but it is still indicative of the creative quirkiness that has made Kaufman's reputation. I like films that make me think, even if I am not sure I am necessarily thinking what the film intends for me to be thinking in the end. What I do know in this case is that the joke in "Human Nature" is on human beings, but then that usually is the case when you bring nature into the equation.
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| Rating | | | Date | October 03, 2004 | | Summary | flawed but funny most of the time... | Content
| Almost as strikingly original as Kaufmann's other screenplays ("Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation,") what this film lacks is a director of Spike Jonze's mastery to bring it to the screen. Michel Gondry while competent is not quite there yet, which results in a number of awkward, slow scenes and dead spots along the way---especially at the end, which turned embarassingly cornball until the last 10 seconds.
Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, and the yummy Miranda Otto all put in solid performances but again you get the feeling that all three would be capable of far better under a more talented director. Robbins especially seems to be phoning his part in; he isn't asked for much, and delivers it.
The main saving grace of this film is its acerbic social commentary and gloriously jaded, anarchistic ideas regarding its title: "human nature" as well as the "nurture" (i.e. social programming) which largely mass-produces it. The last second twist-ending is a nice cherry on top.
While certainly funny and entertaining especially during the first half, this is a movie I'd only rent, not buy. |
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