Adaptation

Following up his wondefully surreal, multi-layered, mindbender of a debut movie 'Being John Malkovich' many people were unsure as to what director Spike Jonze would produce next. Thankfully a further collaboration with genius screenwriter Charlie Kaufman resulted in the outstanding 'Adaptation' This is a film that truly has to be viewed again and again to fully appreciate its skill and cleverness. Constructed with quite stunning precision, what starts out as a relatively simple plot slowly reveals layer upon layer upon layer of depth and meaning. Nic Cage is always worth watching but here, playing dual roles as Charlie Kaufman himself and his (fictional) brother Donald, he is on genius oddball form. Playing Charlie as a highly strung neurotic and Donald as an overly ambitious wanabbe screenwriter the scenes featuring the two brothers are a definite highpoints of the film, especially Donald's continuing work on his screenplay for his thriller 'The 3' (Mom called it 'psychologically… more »

Following up his wondefully surreal, multi-layered, mindbender of a debut movie 'Being John Malkovich' many people were unsure as to what director Spike Jonze would produce next. Thankfully a further collaboration with genius screenwriter Charlie Kaufman resulted in the outstanding 'Adaptation' This is a film that truly has to be viewed again and again to fully appreciate its skill and cleverness. Constructed with quite stunning precision, what starts out as a relatively simple plot slowly reveals layer upon layer upon layer of depth and meaning. Nic Cage is always worth watching but here, playing dual roles as Charlie Kaufman himself and his (fictional) brother Donald, he is on genius oddball form. Playing Charlie as a highly strung neurotic and Donald as an overly ambitious wanabbe screenwriter the scenes featuring the two brothers are a definite highpoints of the film, especially Donald's continuing work on his screenplay for his thriller 'The 3' (Mom called it 'psychologically taut') Not only that but superb support is provided by Meryl Streep as Susan Orleans and Chris Cooper as John Laroche. Initially pitched as a simple adaptation of Susan Orleans' book 'The Orchid Thief' 'Adaptation' morphs and twists into a quite unique film - a factual/fictional account of the successful/unsuccessful adaptation of the book in question by a real-life/imaginary screenwriter. Sure, the ending descends into typical Hollywood predictabilty but that's the whole point. Just watch the movie and it'll all become clear. It may be too complex and surreal for some but if you're the kind of person who simply adores the kind of film that can be endlessly dissected/discussed for years to come that 'Adaptation' is certain to please. First 'Being John Malkovich', then this, then 'Eternal Sunshine' - with this hat trick alone Charlie Kaufman sits proudly on top of my list of best screenwriters of the last decade. If he can produce further films that possess such multilayered, thought-provoking, stunningly original creativity then the future of cinema looks very, very bright indeed..