Human Nature

Human Nature centres on a meeting between two people who have each withdrawn from ordinary life. Nathan is a scientist fixated on teaching good manners, going so far as to train mice at the dinner table, while his girlfriend Lila, a naturalist with abundant body hair, has spent years in the forest and written about the natural world. On a trip together they come across Puff, a man who was raised in the wild and behaves like an ape. Nathan sees a chance to prove his theories by turning Puff into a civilized person, but Lila argues that his untamed instincts are worth protecting. Their disagreement over how he should live grows into a contest of wills.

The film is Michel Gondry's first feature as director and was written by Charlie Kaufman, who also produced alongside Anthony Bregman and Spike Jonze. Tim Robbins plays Nathan, Patricia Arquette plays Lila, and Rhys Ifans plays Puff, with Miranda Otto, Mary Kay Place and Robert Forster among the credited cast of 27. It was made for about 6 million US dollars as a co-production between the United States and France.

On IMDb it holds 6.4 out of 10 from around 20,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from roughly 305 votes. A critics' rating of 5.7 out of 10 from 94 reviews places it below the audience scores on both sites, though the margins are not large.