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. 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."Human Nature" is full of brilliant ideas, but the whole touch of the film is less outlandish than the other. Actually, you may say some scenes are direct parody of methods used in classic Hollywood films, and some scenes, especially opening ten minutes, even remind you of films such as "American Beauty" and "A Life Less Ordinary." By saying that, I do not mean the lack of originality; rather, the director Gondry is cleverly challenging us with unique skills shown in these film, deftly using them to his purpose. And the most amusing thing about "Human Nature" is its ever-changing relationships of love between four characters, among which Puff's sadly too human nature plays the most prominent role. 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. While not as easy a crowd-pleaser as Kaufman's previous work, "Human Nature" has its fair share of oddball moments. Enough so that anyone looking for another iconoclastic romp will do well enough if they look here.Overall rating: 8 out of 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

Freud stated that all human behavior is determined by primal instincts, such as sex and hunger.Kaufman and Gondry's Human Nature brilliantly explores this notion, and it is a blast to watch.This is one of the funniest, most intelligent films I have ever seen about human relationships...if Woody Allen and Salvador Dali ever collaborated on a film, it would look something like Human Nature.What makes this film so brilliant is that it explores so many intelligent themes, such as American versus French culture, the battle of the sexes, the survival instinct, the dangers of repression and the resultant outbreak of the Id, and yet is able to sustain a lighthearted, surreal sense of humor throughout it all.I believe that the reason this film was not so well-received was because Being John Malkovich was so well-received, that expectations were exceedingly high for Kaufman's follow up film, Human Nature. When Human Nature turned out to be a vastly different film from Being John Malkovich, the critics predictably were not satisfied with the film.Michel Gondry, the director of Human Nature, is a true original, and all of his subsequent films, Eternal Sunshine, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and the Science of Sleep, are also brilliant.But for me, Human Nature is his best film so far, because it is able to balance the drama and the comedy without one overwhelming the other, as in Eternal Sunshine.

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.