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82 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An imaginative, wacky and original movie., December 25, 2002
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.
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34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hysterical, warped, bizarre yet flawed contemporary comedy., June 10, 2003
By A Customer
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.
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58 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A twisted triumph!, March 27, 2003
"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.
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