Guide Rating -

Tagline: "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."

Length: 114 minutes

MPAA Rating: R for language, sexuality, some drug use and violent images

Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper star in "Adaptation," a zany comedy about screenwriting. The movie was directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, who had teamed up previously on "Being John Malkovich." I didn't much like their earlier film, but I loved "Adaptation" when I watched it at home recently on DVD.

Cage, Streep, and Cooper all received Academy Award nominations for their performances in "Adaptation," but only Cooper went on to win (in the Best Supporting Actor category). Also, screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman were nominated for an Oscar in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, but they didn't win. During the closing credits for "Adaptation," the words "In Loving Memory of Donald Kaufman" appear on the screen. I believe this is a clever little joke-I don't think Donald Kaufman ever existed, except as a fictional character in this movie.

I see the concept for "Adaptation" as having been something like this: Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired to write a script based on Susan Orlean's nonfiction book "The Orchid Thief," which has no plot and little character development. Charlie loves the book, but he comes to realize he can't write a commercially viable screenplay that is faithful to its spirit. Thus, Charlie sets off in a different direction-he ignores all but a small part of the material in "The Orchid Thief" and instead writes a script that focuses on a fictionalized version of himself struggling to adapt the book. This is how a meandering, discursive book where an author muses about orchid fanaticism, Florida swampland, and Seminole Indians gets morphed into an off-the-wall movie about screenwriting.

I think one of the most delightful things about "Adaptation" is the way it blends fact with fiction. Charlie Kaufman is the real-life screenwriter who wrote the script for "Adaptation," the central character in which is his fictionalized namesake, played by Nicolas Cage. Susan Orlean is a real-life writer of books and magazine articles, and her fictional namesake in "Adaptation" is played by Meryl Streep. Orlean did actually write a nonfiction book titled "The Orchid Thief," which is partly about a colorful real-life plant nut named John Laroche, whose fictional namesake in "Adaptation" is played by Chris Cooper. But the fictional characters in the movie presumably bear only passing resemblances to the real-life people who inspired them.

Although the opening credits for "Adaptation" state that it is based on "The Orchid Thief," this seems to me to be a grand joke since so little of the movie comes from the book. The film is mainly about skewering Hollywood screenwriting, and to that end, it brings in a character based on yet another real-life person: Robert McKee, author of the book "Story," who travels around giving seminars on screenwriting. In "Adaptation," the fictional McKee (played by veteran character actor Brian Cox) advises the fictional Charlie Kaufman, "A last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you got a hit." The fictional Charlie then abandons any remaining notions he may have harbored about writing a screenplay with artistic merit and invents a preposterous third act that involves sex, drugs, and guns.

Despite all the characters in "Adaptation" inspired by real people, there is one important character who I believe to be completely made up, namely the fictional Charlie's twin brother Donald (also played by Nicolas Cage). I think it's hilarious that after attending the fictional McKee's seminar, Donald churns out a thriller about a serial killer with multiple personality disorder. Donald's twist is that cop, killer, and victim are all one person, and his screenplay is titled "The 3." While the fictional Charlie is struggling with adapting "The Orchid Thief," his twin brother has no trouble selling "The 3" for big bucks.

I found "Adaptation" to be the wittiest and most original screenplay I've seen in a long time. Not only was it intelligent and unconventional, I laughed loud and often while watching it. I didn't think the film's third act, which is a parody of a bad Hollywood third act, was as much fun to watch as the earlier part of the movie, but it was still amusing. I suppose "Adaptation" is funnier if you know a little about screenwriting, but I think there are enough laughs for everybody.

I thought the acting in "Adaptation" was absolutely brilliant. Nicolas Cage is superb in the dual roles of the twin screenwriters Charlie and Donald Kaufman-his performance is so seamless that I wasn't overly conscious of the trickery involved. In the role of the fictional Susan Orlean, Meryl Streep turns in yet another impressive performance, this time around having to undergo a transformation from an uptight, upscale Manhattanite to a woman who snorts drugs and slogs through a Florida swamp toting a gun. And Chris Cooper creates an unforgettable character as a scruffy, eccentric, passionate renegade horticulturist who starts his own porn site on the Web.

Alas, the "Adaptation" DVD provides no bonus materials of any consequence. But the movie itself is so terrific that I highly recommend it.

Special Features of the DVD:

• Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
  
• Superbit
  
• English 5.1 Dolby Digital
  
• English DTS
  
• English 2-Channel Dolby Surround
  
• French 5.1 Dolby Digital
  
• English Subtitles
  
• French Subtitles
  
• Filmographies (7)
  
• Theatrical Trailer
• DVD Release Date: May 20, 2003