TheRetroCritic

Years before Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind really put Michel Gondry on the map as one of the most creative and unique directors working today, he made Human Nature : a weirdo comedy starring Tim Robbins, Rhys Ifans and Patricia Arquette. Gondry's first collaboration with genius oddball writer Charlie Kaufman really gels. Just like the latter's work with Spike Jonze on Being John Malkovitch , the off-beat visual style really compliments the off-beat writing. The result is a film which delights in being pretty out there. The plot sees a woman born with a condition that makes her extremely hairy meet a really uptight scientist who discovers a man raised by apes (or, rather, by a father who thinks he's an ape) and tries to teach him the finest things that society has to offer and make him abandon his every animal instinct. The film is partly a sort of parody of Greystoke: The Legend Of Tarzan mixed with some of the themes explored in greater detail in Adaptation .