Human Nature

Year: 2001

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Gondry

Review

michel gondry and charlie kaufman (eternal sunshine of the spotless mind) team up here to explore the more base qualities of human nature. the story is told in flashback by three characters – one an overly-hairy woman (arquette), one a dead man (robbins) and one a former ape man (ifans). visually the film is vibrant and storybook-like, both you would expect from gondry. before i watched it i didn’t know who the director was (i had forgotten why it was in my netflix queue), but in watching the film i recognized the style and by the end (when i saw the director) everything made sense. the nature scenes look entirely unnatural and like a filmed version of a fairytale or of the adam and eve story. perhaps this is a comment that nature itself is a construct or some unattainable human creation? more than anything the film is a study of our nature in relation to humanity’s place in “civilization.” it explores our social mores, sexual relations and, in a way, hopes to find what it is that drives us all. to me it seemed that after the film was done exploring our base desires, impulses and needs we are most driven by our desire to fuck. usually a film with this kind of conclusion turns out to be an erotic thriller (basic instinct) or a tedious filmgoing experience (last tango in paris), but this film was different because despite a sobering (at best) or depressing (at worst) conclusion, everything was dealt with in a humorous way. of course it wasn’t just about our sexual impulses guiding our everyday actions – there was also an exploration of our will-to-power and ascetic lifestyle, and how those are ultimately our undoing. after all, in the end who makes it out free and alive? – the one character who is both in touch with his inner-ape and is cultured, the one who acknowledges why (“to get me a piece”) he is going through all the cultural motions. despite its philosophical groundings, the film is also visually interesting and moderately funny.