hyped garbage

Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The evolution of a species has much to do with its ability to live in harmony with the Earth. Those plants and animals which don't or can't live in harmony with their environment don't survive.Humans make history. That's one of their adaptive characteristics. Reason evolves out of environments totally dominated by Nature into ones which are symbiotically entwined with Nature. Instinct needs to be tamed a bit by reason in order for humanity to gradually civilize itself--a psychologically repressive venture to be sure, one that spawns many neuroses. But then, as Freud told us in CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, repression of instinct, freedom and the id is necessary to keep civilization together. But is the civilization we've got, the best of all possible worlds? Imagine sitting in an office all day, pushing paper at some ultimately, meaningless desk job when you'd really rather be having sex with the secretarial staff. Repress those thoughts and carry-on... or not, as Puff's father did one day when he decided that he'd had enough of this civilization stuff. That was the day, Puff's father decided to jump up onto his desk, screech his way out of work and become an ape--literally to go back to Nature. "Prison break!" "Human Nature" is funny. On the one hand you have a mild mannered scientist named Dr. Nathan Bronfman who is trying to introduce civilized table manners to white mice within a lab setting and on the other you have a father who has kidnapped his young son from the civilized lap of his mother in order to raise him "Wild Child" style, as an ape in the forests of an overly industrialized America. "Human Nature" is funny because of juxtapositions like these. You see, within this industrialized America there is no room for a dwarf with an IQ of 170, who has a Phd to get any work outside of selling his labour time as a side-show freak, 'flying' an airplane costume in a circus ring, complete with a hairy woman who plays King Kong on the Empire State building (that famous last scene where, it wasn't the airplane who killed Kong, 'it was beauty killed the beast'). Hairy, sexy Lila can't earn a living in any other way than by playing King Kong to a side-show dwarf in airplane costume. Looks can be deceiving and the language of deceit is a large part of what civilized behaviour demands. People can't accept Lila as she is and she knows it. Much as the mythical Tarzan and King Kong, Lila's being violates the decorum of civilization itself. So, she decides to drop out of her side-show wage-slavery, much like Puff's dad and so the ape fest goes until ape meets ape-ess; ape meets civilization; ape-ess meets man and jungle; man meets Lila in hairless disguise and dwarf meets Lila's friend, the beautician with the wickedly snappy electrolysis wand. "Human Nature" is not only great comedy, it's a semi-profound speculative discourse on just what human nature is and how some of that nature is changed and some not changed through the history which humans make, write and remember. Thus, "Human Nature" has more to say to us than films with a similar plot outline e.g., "The Mystery of Kasper Hauser". It's also much funnier than your standard sexual farce. Give "Human Nature" a chance. See it and maybe, uncover some of your own basic instincts. Experience the refreshing wisdom of laughing at yourselves. And, hint, it wouldn't hurt to find a copy of the Kinks'sardonic "Apeman" to listen to before you start the movie.

As a fan of Charlie Kaufman's works (and Gondry's as well) I was missing out on this movie big time. That's because I was initially put off by the description and most reviews which consider this a lesser movie. Well, they were wrong - this is an excellent movie on its own right."Human Nature" is an extremely ironic and realistic movie in an exaggerated sort of way. Granted, it's not for everyone - there's a lot of semi-nudity (very light stuff), sexual tension and a story that requires you to think a little bit. Actually, that's a lie - this movie has layers upon layers of symbolism, and that's just half the fun. The main characters are well thought-out and have their 'peculiarities' (like all humans do) taken to the extreme, which serve to illustrate the point further. And the execution is brilliant, with Kaufman's usual non-linearity - you never know exactly what's going to happen.The casting is perfect. Great acting all around, and Rhys Ifans in particular does a marvelous job here. You can also spot Hillary Duff as a younger Lila.And finally, pay close attention to ending. Hilarious. My vote is9/10

A modern screwball comedy that takes in everything from My Fair Lady to Greystoke whilst nodding askance at the corporeal British humour of Benny Hill. It can be a bit patchy and hangs together by virtue of a good cast. Rhys Ifans, reasonably fresh from doing a similarly oafish turn in Notting Hill plays a Tarzan-Adam opposite Patricia Arquette pushed into being an Eve-wannabe by virtue of excessive and socially proscriptive bodyhair. Both are game for taking their clothes off a great deal and in the most unflattering circumstances. Binding them together is a well-judged Tim Robbins. The relationships between the three are scrambled by a fourth, an urbane, conniving lab assistant to Robbins played by Miranda Otto with a 'faked' French accent (that knocks the socks off whatever Rhys Ifans is attempting). The argument for and against civilisation is played out in the sub plots like a complicated Mexican stand-off and the end is a good example of survival of the fittest. Harmless but misses its target. 4/10

Charlie Kaufman is a great screenwriter and movies like Being John Malkovich,Adaptation,Confessions of a dangerous mind and Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind show it.But Kaufman's weakest screenplay is the one which made for the movie Human nature.The script feels false,cold and pretentious.The movie feels like that too.This film had good intentions but they were not very well portrayed.The performances are excellent and they give points to the movie.The film tells a good story but it is not well developed.Human nature is not a bad movie;it is a good movie and it kept me fun.But the film feels pretentious,cold and false.