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by Richard Dennis

Adaptation is one strange film. Given that it’s penned by Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich and the upcoming Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, who would expect anything less?

Both the blessing and the curse of Adaptation is that it is a true film-lover's movie. It is good in the same way that The Player was good. That State and Main was good. It is a film for people who study films. The problem is that, if you're a regular old Joe who only loves to go to the movies on Saturday nights with your significant other, you're probably not going to like it.

That might be generalizing a bit, but considering the fact that the entire running time of the film revolves around a writer trying to adapt a best-selling novel into a film and the trouble he has, it a hard sell for your average run-of-the-mill moviegoer.

The story, as stated, centers on Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) who, after coming off of the success of Being John Malkovich, is hired to adapt the novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean into a screenplay. During the course of the film he tries to deal with both fulfilling the task and dealing with his own neurosis.

Charlie obsesses about his weight, his hair, and his ability to attract members of the opposite sex. In fact, Charlie obsesses about practically everything. Most of all, he obsesses about doing justice to Susan Orlean's novel. He wants to adapt it with all of the purity and spirit that it possesses in the book. The problem is that, well, there isn't much of a story. "It's all about flowers", as Charlie, says.

To make matters worse, Charlie's brother Donald (also played by Cage) has come to live with him and is also hard at work on his first screenplay. Donald, however, is quite different from his brother (though they look the same.) He is more at home with the ladies, his work, and most of all himself. Donald's script is also different than Charlie's. It's a by-the-numbers serial killer movie that is sure to be put on the fast track to production.

Adaptation is not a bad film by any means. It's not even a mediocre one. Like Being John Malkovich, the film is far cleverer than anything else you're likely to see at the multiplexes anytime soon. If originality is your thing, than this is definitely your movie. Cage is as good or better than he's ever been and Meryl Streep looks like she's having more fun than she's had in years in this role. She's loose and unhinged in a way that I haven't seen her in some time.

By the time the third act rolls around (which takes some rather unique turns of its own), you are either already along for the ride, or watching the time to see when you'll be released from this movie-within-a movie, art imitates life, brain teaser. Either way, you won't be able to just simply dismiss this movie. It's simply too smart to just pass off.

Love it or hate it, Adaptation and Charlie Kaufman are one-of-a-kind. And judging from his script, he knows it as well as we do.


Richard Dennis

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