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Adaptation

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Charlie Kaufman writes the way he lives... With Great Difficulty. His Twin Brother Donald Lives the way he writes... with foolish abandon. Susan writes about life... But can't live it. John's life is a book... Waiting to be adapted. One story... Four Lives... A million ways it can end.

"I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size," says Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), a confused Los Angeles screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing - and by the screenwriting ambitions of his free-loading twin Donald (Nicolas Cage).

While struggling to adapt Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep) non-fiction book The Orchid Thief - the story of John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a plant dealer who clones rare orchids then sells them to collectors - Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. Orlean wants to know how it feels to care about something passionately as well - especially after witnessing the fervour of Laroche as he scours the Florida swamps for rare species of the captivating flower.

Their lives become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the other's.

Persons of interest

Nicolas Cage .... Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman
Meryl Streep .... Susan Orlean
Chris Cooper .... John Laroche
Cara Seymour .... Amelia Kavan
Tilda Swinton .... Valerie Thomas
Ron Livingston .... Marty Bowen
Brian Cox .... Robert McKee
Maggie Gyllenhaal .... Caroline Cunningham
Jim Beaver .... Ranger Tony
Judy Greer .... Alice the Waitress
Litefoot .... Russell
Doug Jones .... Augustus Margary
Jay Tavare .... Matthew Osceola
Roger Willie .... Randy
Gary Farmer .... Buster Baxley
Susan Orlean .... Author: The orchid thief
Charlie Kaufman .... Screenwriter
Donald Kaufman .... Screenwriter
Spike Jonze .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Adaptation official movie site
Adaptation QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS - Oscars) 2003: Best Supporting Actor (Chris Cooper)
Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes) 2002: Best supporting actor (Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep)

Studios and distributors:

Intermedia * Sony Pictures Releasing

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

A screenwriter playing games with himself on the big screen.

I haven't seen Being John Malkovich (Charlie Kaufman's previous script) so I can't compare the two but Adaptation is replete with a style that would probably be familiar. Like any writer faced with writer's block Charlie does the right thing and writes about writer's block, thereby giving himself a way out of it. If you are ever suffering from writer's block the best way to overcome it is to write: it doesn't matter what as long as you are putting words on the paper (or screen). The physical process of writing undoes the psychological problem because some events occur in both worlds and evoking one thing evokes the other. Think of a smile. If you put on a smile, no matter how fake, you will feel happy because your body floods with happiness hormones, which in turn make you happy. It's like a vicious circle only not vicious.

The ending is very Donald. It also makes you wonder just how much is based on Charlie's angst and how much on Donald's inventiveness, but it does do what it's supposed to: give you an ending with a bang. The rest of the film is a Seinfeldian, almost Woody Allen-esque cycle of rejection and depression but without as much humour. The laughs, when they come, are harsh and brutal. Charlie has bravely set himself up as an object of ridicule.

If you aren't a member of the filmmaking industry, or aren't so involved with watching movies that you don't know what filmmaking is all about, then don't bother to see Adaptation as it will mean no more than any other 2-hour long in-joke. If you're on the inside, however, and if you like having your brain teased then climb on board for a gritty but funny ride.