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Adaptation [VHS]

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Spike Jonze's new movie, "Adaptation," is a funny and entertaining look at insecure screenwriters, Hollywood hokum, and the lengths to which people will go to get what they want.

Nicholas Cage is terrific in a dual role. He is Charlie Kaufman, a real-life screenwriter who has been commissioned to write the movie script for Susan Orlean's acclaimed novel, "The Orchid Thief." Unfortunately, Charlie has a monumental case of writer's block. He is also an insecure, nerdy guy who has trouble connecting with women and who is ashamed of his unkempt appearance. He is chubby and he wears a flannel shirt with the tails hanging out throughout much of the film. Cage also plays Charlie's twin brother, Donald, who is confidently writing a screenplay of his own. Donald's screenplay is formulaic and derivative, but he manages to sell it for a bundle. In addition, Donald has no trouble getting a beautiful woman to be his girlfriend.

The conceit of "Adaptation" is that Charlie proceeds to write a screenplay about his inability to write a screenplay. There are hilarious vignettes with the wonderful Meryl Streep, who plays the writer, Susan Orlean, as a repressed journalist who is depressed because of a lack of passion in her life. Chris Cooper almost steals the movie as the eponymous orchid thief, a toothless, lowdown individual who somehow connects with Orlean.

Jonze and Kaufman are making several statements here. They are saying that Hollywood is a place where desperate people will do anything to succeed, include writing formulaic potboilers. The way to survive is to adapt, to become whatever the public wants at the moment. You need to "get with the program" in order to succeed in Hollywood and in life.

"Adaptation" is also a movie about passion, about loving what you do, loving someone else, and loving life itself. You need to take risks, even if you wind up falling on your face, or else your life is meaningless.

"Adaptation" is confusing, exhilarating, beautifully acted, and one of the most intriguing films that I have seen in a long time. See it, and you will understand what all the fuss is about.

Nicolas Cage gives his edgiest performance in years, as Charlie Kaufman and twin brother Donald. Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper star as opposites-attract real-life characters, Susan Orlean (author of the Orchid Thief) and John LaRoche, horticulturist and the "orchid thief" himself. Brian Cox blusters brilliantly in a hilarious yet oddly touching ten minute supporting part as screenwriting guru Robert McKee. Adaptation is an adaptation of Orlean's the Orchid Thief. But it is a chronicle of the difficult task of writing that screenplay. It is intentionally and whole-heartedly an odd and difficult movie to sum up with conventional logic. What is real and what isn't? What is based on life? What is based on the book? And finally is it all just based simply on pure artistic chicanery?

Don't be fooled by the movie's alleged esoterism. Director Spike Jonze and real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman still plan on telling a story that has universal appeal. Orlean's The Orchid Thief dealt with disappointment and people's perception of success and failure. In thematic response, the plot of Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt the Orchid Thief, whilst being surrounded by his infinitely more successful brother, Donald, revolves around disappointment too. These themes resonate with the viewer. We grow to equally identify with Donald's good-natured ignorance as protoganist Charlie's paranoid neurosis. If one thinks outside the box (which is an absolute requirement for watching this movie) is is apparent that Charlie and Donald represent different sides of the same person (the real-lifeKaufman).

Charlie reminded me of the Adam Sandler character, Barry Egan in Paul Thomas Anderson's vibrant and beautiful Punch-Drunk Love. Both are too afraid of themselves to love. Both are intelligent and decidedly kooky, and fall in love with exotic British women. Comparisons of the films as wholes have been made, but Punch-Drunk Love is decidedly more artsy and classical in sensibility...requiring patience to enjoy its beauties. Adaptation for all its weirdness is more bent on making the audience have a good time (but with brain and oddball sense of humor attached of course).

An argument exists that this movie's utterly odd and warped conclusion is a cop-out. Though i daren't spoil the surprise of what happens, the notion that Jonze and Kaufman express is one that requires deep consideration on the part of the film viewer. Is it a cop-out if there's a reason behind the cop-out? Afterall, we only know what we see. Can a movie rely on implications and get away with it? These are questions Jonze and Kaufman invite the viewer to pore over. Adaptation is a thought-provoking but still viscerally entertaining shot of pure cinema. Love it, then think about it afterwards.

"Adaptation" is not a film for viewers who gravitate toward conventional movies. Charlie Kaufman (Nicholos Cage) is a sweating, overweight screenwriter prone to voice-overs and fantasy. Given the coveted job of writing an adaptation of Susan Orlean's THE ORCHID THIEF, he struggles mightily with his art and the downturn of his personal life, which is also desperately in need of adaptation. When his twin brother Donald (also Cage), the archetypical mooch, decides on a whim that he, too, will become a screenwriter, Charlie is pushed to the edge. The movie begins to twist on itself, showing scenes from the story of "The Orchid Thief", Charlie's struggle with it, and, most comically, Charlie and Donald's head-banging exchanges about writing screenplays. It soon becomes evident that we are watching the finished screenplay of Charlie's (and Donald's) adaptations, with all its quirks and dramatic license.

Cage makes the real screenwriter Charlie Kaufman hilariously pathetic, and argues with his wide-eyed (and thinner) alter ego with equally comedic success. Meryl Streep is great in the role of Susan Orlean, especially as she takes her character from Charlie's to Donald's genre. Chris Cooper is incredible as LaRoche, the charming but strange orchid thief himself; I had to keep reminding myself that he was an actor and not the real-life Laroche himself.

Viewers who enjoy the type of weird ride that the screenwriter/director combo of Kaufman and Jonze ("Being John Malkovich") provide will find it hilariously clever; others will be left shaking their heads. If you like films by the Coen brothers such as "Fargo" and "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", you'll probably appreciate the humor and ambition of this film.

This movie blew my mind. I didn't see it in the theaters for a couple of reasons. One, I work at a movie theater and we didn't get it, and after 3 years I don't really like paying for movies. Reason two, I really don't like Nicolas Cage in the least bit...except for this movie. He is absolutely brilliant portraying Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald. While one would think that it might be hard to tell them apart, Cage somehow sounds different as the characters and pulls off their completely opposite personalities flawlessly. Adaptation's story is also one of the most original and bizarre things that I have ever watched. To put it in the most simple way I can, it's about Charlie Kaufman trying to write a screenplay for a book called "The Orchid Thief". The book, written by The New Yorker writer Susan Orlean doesn't have a real plot to it, so Kaufman ends up writing himself into his own script, creating a fictional twin brother, and switching back and forth between scenes of him trying to write and some of the events that take place in the novel. Sound confusing? It isn't. If you sit down and actually pay attention to the movie, you can figure it out. But if you're excited for 2 Fast 2 Furious, then I wouldn't recommend this movie to you at all. The most brilliant part of this movie is the last 20-25 minutes. Don't let people tell you that it's horrible because it packs in just about every Hollywood cliche there ever has been. That's pretty much the point of it, to show how movies have gotten worse as the years have gone by. I wouldn't even bother watching newer movies still if it wasn't for Spike Jonze, P.T. Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and, perhaps the most brilliant new director, Darren Aronofsky. As I said before, if you are a thinking man(or woman)and can appreciate the humor and brilliance of this movie, rent this first and then go out and buy it the next day.

From the brilliantly warped mind of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman comes "Adaptation." This film didn't get all that much play in the theaters and true, it's not for everyone. But "Adaptation" is destined for classic-status. You've probably heard something about it or else you wouldn't be here looking at this page. For a synopsis you can look just about anywhere, so I won't bore you with that. But in the likely chance you are here because you are confused and looking for information, that I can help you with. I won't give any spoilers, I'll just help focus the line between reality and whatever dark corner of Kaufman's mind this came from.

True: "The Orchid Hunter" is a non-fiction book by author Susan Orlean about an eccentric Floridian named John LaRoche who was convicted of attempting to steal orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp.
True: Charlie Kaufman was hired by Colombia to write a film adaptation of the book. "Adaptation" is that film.
True: Nicholas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, the real-life screenwriter of this film and the film Being John Malkovich.
False: Charlie Kaufman has a twin brother named Donald Kaufman. Kaufman does not have an identical twin brother.
False: Donald Kaufman co-write "Adaptation" and wrote a script called "The Three" that is coming out in 2004. Obviously, if Donald Kaufman doesn't exist he didn't write a screenplay. However, this is still worthy of mentioning just in case you noticed the cast bios on the DVD - it lists Donald Kaufman as a writer with "Adaptation" and "The Three" as credits.
True: Robert McKee is a leading screenwriting teacher with a bestselling book entitled "Story."

As far as the story itself goes, you'll have to discern fantasy and fiction for yourself. But if you pay careful attention to what McKee says it's fairly obvious at which point in the film fiction enters ("Wow them in the end...").

Lastly, it's been stated that this film has a cop-out in the end. I can't believe someone would actually say that if they remotely paid attention to the film. It's the entire point of the movie! (And Kaufman's philosophy on story-writing.) Kaufman is anti-Hollywood and anti-formula. So clearly there is a great deal of rhetoric and irony involved in his choice of the ending, especially when you consider McKee's words to Kaufmann. It's not a cop-out - it's a brilliant slap in the face to Hollywood.

Ultimately, to see this movie takes a little faith. While impossible to describe in words, I'll try to compare it as best I can. This movie reminded me of such movies as Fight Club or Memento in that 1) it is impossible to describe in fewer than 3 pages while retaining the meaning of it, 2)you are unsure about the real purpose of the movie until an hour after you've finished it, and 3)you either love it or hate it. This said, I encourage anyone who likes a truly original movie to see this movie. I like unique and original movies and will suffer through moments of bad acting and direction for the sake of the overall movie. However, Adaptation has superb acting and directing...it has it all if you're willing to go out on a limb and if you're willing to try not to expect more than it is.

I did think that the movie seemed to go off on a tangent into a radical style towards the end. I wondered if this was possibly the section of the screenplay written by Donald (who from the movie is depicted as very prone to write the action-oriented conclusion of Adaptation vs. Charlie who is prone to write the slow paced, insightful beginning of the movie). While I felt the the fast paced section of the movie destroyed the mood and anything we thought we knew about a few of the charcters, in the end it wasn't enough cause for me to give up on this movie. The movie does go where no movie I have seen before does and when I pay my $$$, that's what I'm looking for.

Keeping things simple, Adaptation is a fine example of a near-Escher logic and structure. Things turn in on themselves and never quite appear as they seem.

Nicholas Cage gives two excellent performances as a seriously on the edge screenwriter with a ton of problems, in particular no way to write a story based on a book he admires that has little action and is about orchids, not a winning formular for a screenplay.

This could have gotten sophomoric easily and to the film's credit and the fine acting of the cast instead we see twists and turns within the mind and within the plot. Reality faces inner monologue and inner monologue becomes reality...oh, and the film is non-linear which takes the viewer on a sensory rollercoaster ride.

Truths are told as the convoluted story, which is fairly easy to follow, makes it's way through something you'd expect to read in a gonzo, prozac gone bad, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas kind of way.

The last 30 minutes (or if you prefer third act)change in tone and style, collapsing in mood and sudden linear exposition and action. On first viewing it was a bit of a disappointment but watching the film a second time it was a good choice and made sense.

An entertaining film and enlightening. You learn a lot about the creative process and the toll it can take on writers if you come away with nothing else, and there are many other areas explored. Adaptation is one of the few films that is fun to watch, challenging and not so arty as to be condecending to the audience which is probably how it got made. That and the success of Being John Malcovich by the same screenwriter/director team. Adaptation is everything a film should be.

First of all, LOVED this movie...one of the very, very best of the year (but then, I loved Being John Malkovich and this is very much in the same vein).

But this Superbit [stuff] really gets my goat! I can understand that DVD lovers may want to see an epic with incredible special effects (think, Lord of the Rings) on special Superbit technology, but ADAPTATION? The visuals didn't exactly make the story! Furthermore, Adaptation is just screaming out for extras...it's an intellectual head-trip of a movie and there could be all kinds of fascinating background stuff...but NO!!! First we have to be suckered into buying THIS version before they will put out a ..., "special edition" down the road....

It's such a marketing ploy. I mean, here I sit wishing to own Adaptation, a movie I would love to watch over and over again (and probably pick up new things each time), and the marketers KNOW that I will pay the money now, and then again later when they add the bonus features. It just leaves me with a bad taste (Why not put out both versions now and let people choose? Oh, I know why....$$$$)

Anyway, great film.

It is a wacky, offbeat movie; think "Sunset Boulevard" if it were written/directed by Hunter Thompson. Nicolas Cage gives his best performance since "Raising Arizona."

The film jumps around in time and place, careening from Los Angeles to Florida to New York, as screenwriter Charles Kaufman attempts to complete a screenplay based on the book "The Orchard Thief" by Susan Orleans. Kaufman can't get a handle on the story. His life and mind are chaotic. Things get worse for him when his twin brother Donald announces that he too wants to be a screenwriter. Merriment ensues.

I highly recommend this film. Anyone who does see it should stay for the "Easter egg" at the end of the credits.

"Adaptation" is an overwhelmingly brilliant and ingenious film that forces you to think and pay attention to every little detail in order to get the joke. This is not one of those movies where you can just sit down and enjoy, this is one that you really have to focus on and be prepared to be caught off guard. From the same people who brought you "Being John Malkovitch" comes this stunningly amazing and original film that forces you to use your brain.

The movie is about Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter who has agreed to adapt the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean into a screenplay. He wants to make a movie that is true to itself and that isn't filled with sex, drugs, car chases, murder, and so on. However, he is having a lot of trouble trying to make it work for a screenplay and is experiencing some serious writer's block. It eventually gets to the point where the script he is writing is no longer about the book "The Orchid Thief," but is now about him trying to adapt the book into a movie and what has transpired to get himself there. That is ONLY a fraction of the movie. The rest I will not divulge because there are a lot of subtle surprises and twists.

I was in absolute awe when the ending credits started to roll. I wanted to applaud, I wanted to yell, and I wanted to shout. My mouth was on the floor by the time it was all said and done, and it stayed in my head for the rest of the night. This is a superb movie that toyed with all of us from start to finish. And what was great was that half of the audience did not like it because they didn't "get it." For once, I "got it" and nobody else in that theatre did. It's usually the opposite with me, which was why I was so amazed. The subtleness and the cleverness that prevailed in this film was really a sight to see.

Everything was there. The film was amazingly acted out. Nicholas Cage is triumphant as he plays both Charles and Donald Kaufman. He does such a great job that you forget it's the same actor. Meryl Streep is triumphant as Susan Orlean. And who can forget the wonderful Chris Cooper who played John Laroche; the orchid collector with no front teeth. He's a fabulous actor and this, and in my opinion this is one of his best roles ever. The film was so cleverly written and directed. I could go on and on, but it wouldn't mean much if I tell you it all. Better to see it in person.

"Adaptation" is a wildly creative and original film that really reminds us why we go see movies in the first place. It also reminds us that good movies are still being made. This is one not everyone is going to like, and it is absolutely crucial that you pay attention to every little detail you encounter when watching it. The jokes and humor are there, but you must uncover them in their subtleness. This is a spectacular film on every front. Truly amazing.