Human Nature is a comedy drama written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry in his feature debut behind the camera. The story follows three people whose lives intertwine, each recounting in different time frames what happened to them. Lila Jute, a writer with a rare hormonal condition that makes thick hair grow across her body, walks away from society to live in the wilderness. Years later she returns to civilization looking for a partner, and meets Nathan Bronfman, a psychologist studying whether mice can be taught table manners. Together they encounter a man raised far from civilization like an animal, and Nathan sets out to tame his behavior and turn him into a respectable member of society.

How it was made

The project first attracted Steven Soderbergh, who in late 1996 considered directing Kaufman's script while Kaufman was still trying to get Being John Malkovich made. Soderbergh considered David Hyde Pierce, Chris Kattan and Marisa Tomei for various roles, but left the project when he was offered Out of Sight. Paul Giamatti was cast as Nathan before Tim Robbins took over the part. It marked Gondry's directing debut, with a score by Graeme Revell, cinematography by Tim Maurice-Jones, and a Columbia Pictures release produced by Spike Jonze and Kaufman himself.

Reception and legacy

The film screened out of competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival and received mostly negative to mixed reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 48 percent approval rating, and on Metacritic an average of 56 out of 100. Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, praising its screwball charm. Its box office was modest, around 1.6 million dollars worldwide against an 8.6 million dollar budget, making it a commercial failure. Critic Nathan Rabin revisited it in 2009 and felt its sadness resonates more strongly than its cerebral comedy, though he found it abstract and strangely lacking in humanity.