Adaptation: DVD & Movie Review (2002)

(Originally published 2002)

The terrific new Spike Jonze movie, "Adaptation," begins in pitch darkness, over which comes a frantic voice that plunges the viewer straight into the panic of a man facing a daunting task he knows he can't pull off.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter what that task is. There isn't a person out there who, at some point in their lives, can't relate to coming up short, being in over their head, unable to deliver the goods--failing--and beating themselves up for it. To that end, "Adaptation" will find an audience in everyone as it's story--at its core--is about everyone.

To be specific, the man having the meltdown is Charlie Kaufman, the neurotic real-life screenwriter of "Being John Malkovich," which Jonze also directed, who was hired to turn Susan Orlean's best-selling book, "The Orchid Thief," into a movie.

It's a task the emotionally distraught, self-deprecating Kaufman, brilliantly played by Nicolas Cage in his best performance in years, found nearly impossible to do. Indeed, the book itself--written in a high-minded, arm's length prose radically different from Kaufman's own quirky style--doesn't exactly beg for the big-screen treatment.

Still, Kaufman was hired to do the job and he had no choice but to press on, in spite of the apparent consequences to his health and sanity.

The result didn't become a literal screen adaptation of "The Orchid Thief," as was planned. Instead, it became "Adaptation," a film that chronicles Kaufman's struggle to adapt the book while also being a movie based on the book. It’s a movie within a movie, and in this excellent film, by far one of 2002's best, the two stories collide spectacularly.

Since so much of "Adaptation's" success depends on its ongoing series of jolts and surprises, it's important to reveal as little of what ensues as possible.

What can be said is this: The film blends elements of fact and fiction, comedy and drama, blurring the lines between each for three-quarters of the film before letting loose with an outrageous ending that culls some of the biggest, smartest laughs of the year as well as pure elements of horror.

What it becomes is exactly what Kaufman wanted to avoid when he first began writing--a gross Hollywood farce punched-up for the masses with guns, blood, boobs and bullets. That it becomes just that is ultimately intentional and says plenty about our culture and the current state of filmmaking in Hollywood--though for reasons I'll leave for you.

With Academy Award-worthy performances by Cage as Charlie and also as his fictional twin brother, Donald, a bumbling screenwriter who has all the confidence and luck Charlie lacks; Meryl Streep as Orlean, who, it must be said, has an amazing sense of humor about herself; and Chris Cooper as John Laroche, the hillbilly botanist with surprisingly sharp, poetic insights into life and the orchids he steals, what’s great about "Adaptation" is how it skirts formula while also courting it, pushing down new paths to offer something familiar that no one has seen before.

Grade: A