Adaptation. (2002)

Simply A Masterpiece

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

For a good while into the movie, I wasn't quite sure how to take it. I was amused by the story, but couldn't decide for a while if Nicolas Cage's double was supposed to be real or an alter-ego offering Charlie Kaufman an alternative point of view. Turns out Donald Kaufman was a spitting image of Charlie, which of course makes sense because Cage was portraying both. I finally realized it when Donald kept popping up in various situations where other people recognized him as his own person. Glad I got that figured out early enough.Well this film isn't like many others. It's got a uniquely original premise which involves a screenwriter adapting a novel by the writer (Meryl Streep) who appears in the film, coming to terms with a person she's writing about, and quite unexpectedly, falls for (Chris Cooper), who's also in the movie. This all comes across in subtle and unsubtle ways, and if you're feeling confused by the end of the picture, not to worry, you won't be alone. I thought the picture was moving along pretty well until the debacle in the swamp. That all just defied credibility on too many levels.But the picture IS entertaining. Cage brings a Woody Allen type of nebbish-ness to his Charlie character, and for a time it feels like an Allen script in the early going. Cage has been in some God-awful stuff, but I actually enjoyed him in this one. There was a fascinating bit of trivia I noticed in the naming of one of the characters in the flick. One of the Indian assistants poaching the famed ghost orchid had the last name of Osceola, which was also the name of a pair of brothers in the 1948 film "Key Largo". Intentional as an homage? Only Charlie Kaufman would know, and he might have if he was either a Bogart or Lone Ranger fan. One of the Osceola Brothers in that movie was played by Jay Silverheels.

I hate when reviewers post a review of a movie they didn't even finish watching. The thing is...I turned this thing off...literally...before Cage finished his opening mind twisting monologue! There's a saying in evolution: adapt, or die. I'd rather die than watch this ridiculous movie.

ADAPTATION is a delightful film that says a lot about nature and how human destiny is inexorably linked to it.The action begins by running the credits across a blank screen, while Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) sums up his confused state of mind. This speech sums up the film's basic premise; to find a solution to our daily struggles, we should look into nature. The orchid is a perfect flower that blooms every year. And fulfills its appointed function in the universe. Wouldn't it be good if we could do the same?The task isn't as easy as Charlie thinks. He finds a story centred on the flower' but has nothing to transform it into an effective screenplay. Eventually he teams up with brother Donald (also played by Cage) to produce something workable. What the film suggests is that we should look into ourselves and our relationship to nature to find inspiration, rather than relying on familiar cliches. The twins discover this through collaboration,Charlie's story is contrasted with that of Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep)' who chases after orchid hunter John Laroche (Chris Cooper). This plot is not entirely optimistic, but she discovers there is a plausible alternative to "chasing the story" for those who want to look for lt. Orlean begins the film by writing faithfully in a notebook what the farmer says, but as the film unfolds she understands his desire to pursue orchids for the purpose of dissecting them so as to turn them into drugs. This drug is not a narcotic, but a means of aligning humanity with nature - it is only our puritan culture that stigmatizes this act. To watch Orlean wading through the undergrowth in search of the orchid is to watch a woman transformed by the desires of nature.Eventually the film shows Charlie having resolved his mental problems, partly through reflection, and partly by the knowledge that there is a great deal more to the world than things, and that understanding its beauties is the first step towards changing one's lifestyle. He encounters Orlean briefly, but it is chiefly through her book that he comes to realize what he has hitherto been missing.ADAPTATION is not an easy film to follow, but befits several viewings in order to understand its complex plot-structure and its oscillation over time between past and present.

Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze are both known for creating weird, quirky movies, and this may be their weirdest and quirkiest, but it is also their most brilliant in a way (although Kaufman's project "Synecdoche, New York" may be slightly ahead of this in terms of genius). It is a mindbogglingly meta comedy that subverts any and all expectations gleefully. Those expecting a cliché Hollywood comedy and those expecting an art house classic would both be equally shocked by the unexpected twists and turns this manic film takes. First of all, it's very premise is odd and original as screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's lead protagonist is a screenwriter by the name of Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman is adapting a book, which is real, while his twin brother, who is not real, is trying to help him while also becoming a successful screenwriter himself, indulging in thriller clichés and being greatly rewarded for doing so. By the end, this mildly autobiographical take on Charlie Kaufman's own life and struggles becomes a surprisingly violent suspense thriller, and considering the fact that the film's writing credit is partially given to the fictional Donald Kaufman, one can expect that his own script influenced those, more "out-of-this- world" areas of the film. Seriously, the final half hour of "Adaptation" is something of an extended punchline that keeps getting crazier by the second.Funny, fresh, and original, like all of Kaufman's finest work, "Adaptation" is an unconventional film to say the least, one that borders on complete experimentalism (mainly in story rather than visuals; although there are creative visuals as well, this being a movie directed by Spike Jonze) while also remaining accessible to any audience member that can even remotely wrap their mind around what's happening. Mixing magic realism with satire with tragedy with romance and so on, "Adaptation" is a slice of Charlie Kaufman's fascinating, unique, funny, and occasionally depressed mind that also is filled with great characters and performances (Nicolas Cage is often harshly criticized, but he portrayal of two very different characters in this film is astounding, and Chris Cooper is simply perfect in his supporting role as the central subject of "The Orchid Thief", the book that this film partially adapts) as well as one of the mot startlingly mind blowing movie concepts in recent memory.