Rating: 
Summary: So-So
Review: I wanted to love this movie. I wanted to adore it. It was a movie whose release I anticipated all year. A movie with a clever meta-fictional premise, written by one of the best writers working in Hollywood right now, Charlie Kaufman. A screenplay I read and loved awhile ago, leaving me salivating for Jonze and Kaufman's follow-up to BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.So, its first weekend of limited release I drove from N. Hollywood to Santa Monica to see it, walked in the theatre, and within half an hour was bored. There were funny moments, that's undeniable. Nick Cage's acting was better than it has been in years, also undeniable. But the connecting tissue in this film is Kaufman's own anxieties over being able to write the screenplay to the movie itself, and well, truth be told, it's just not enough. In addiction to that, the hyper-manic, fantastically funny, terribly absurd ending that Kaufman wrote onto the second draft version of the script that I read was shortened and made...well, average. And I'll never know why. The third act of the screenplay was what pulled it out of its self-indulgent self-referential rut and up into maniacle madness that you couldn't help but love...and that is absent from the film, shortened to a couple scenes...the best scenes in the film, but still too little, too late. It's still definitely worth watching, and it does have its moments, but it's nothing close to what it could and should have been. And that's sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Discovering passion in the Florida swamps
Review: In ADAPTATION, the audience views sequences from alternating storylines, one from the present and one 3-years past, until both converge at the film's conclusion. In the "past", New York journalist Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is researching a story, eventually to become the book "The Orchid Thief", about John Laroche (Chris Cooper), whose passion is collecting endangered species of orchids to serve as nursery stock. Actually, he poaches them from protected nature preserves in the south Florida swamps. But, since he has Native Americans indigenous to the region doing the picking, his operation is legally untouchable under an arcane interpretation of the law. In the "present", Nicolas Cage plays the dual roles of Charlie Kaufman and his identical twin Donald. Charlie is the accomplished screenwriter adapting "The Orchid Thief" to the Silver Screen. Donald also wants to be a screenwriter, and is in the process of authoring his first script. Charlie is handicapped by a severe lack of self esteem, which is exacerbated by his inability to find the muse for his current assignment as well a his failure to establish a relationship with a woman. It doesn't help that he shares a roof with Donald, his complete opposite. Donald is self-assured, successful with the ladies, and positively gushing with creative juices as he writes his initial screenplay. Without the use of any special make-up tricks, each of the Kaufman twins is instantly recognizable by the viewer. Cage manages this differentiation with an acting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Charlie's gloom is consistently marked by the downturned corners of his mouth and a general hangdog look. He's Major Downer personified. On the other hand, Donald's optimistic ebullience is signaled by the upturned corners of his mouth and the twinkle in his eyes. Obviously there's more to it than this - you have to see it. Cooper is wonderful as the Southern cracker stereotype - ball-capped, toothless, long-haired and street smart - whose life has been a sequential series of passionate obsessions. Streep is (initially) enigmatic as Orlean, whose sterile marriage and professional life has her desperately seeking passion of any sort. At the film's conclusion, when all four personalities collide in the Florida swamps, passion erupts to heights hitherto undreamed of by the characters or the audience. ADAPTATION is undeniably clever, since its perspective comes from the screenwriter (Charlie) whose painfully evolving screenplay becomes the movie you're watching. I liked that. However, the two storylines seemed excessively contrived and joined to make a point. And what is the point? According to Sony Pictures, the film's theme is the passion that each of us longs for in life. Or perhaps it's indicated by something Donald says late in the movie, "You are what you love, not what loves you." To me, these are such obvious attributes of life and living as to comprise an unnecessary dedication of two hours of run time. I walked out of the theater admiring this film, especially Cage's performance(s), more than being swept away by it. A film about discovering passion left me curiously unswept.
Rating: 
Summary: Sublime Puzzle
Review: I did not see Being John Malkovich. It was brought to screen by Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but I will correct that error shortly. Adaptation is a Hollywood insider movie. Like Hollywood Boulevard with Gloria Swanson and William Holden, it takes you behind the scenes. This is a fictionalization of real screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman's bizarre difficulties with adapting a novel, Susan Orlean's real book, The Orchid Thief. A fictional brother was created for Charlie. Donald is the gabby and cheerful alter ego of morose and introspective Charlie, and Cage plays both. This is a nice turn for Cage because he gets to play the twin-opposites with amazing clarity. Charlie is the screenwriter that believes originality and cerebral acrobatics are the stuff of art. His brother, the wifty, Donald is writing a screenplay too. His Hollywood screenwriting guru, Brian Cox plays Robert McKee. The guru preaches formula. But Donald's script is accepted immediately and his success with the ladies is driving his brother crazy. Charlie's writers-block over the Orchid script paralyzes not only his writing but also his ability to love. Meryl Street plays the real life author Susan Orlean. The writer becomes passionately involved with goofball horticulturalist and adventurer, John LaRouche played by Chris Cooper. LaRouche risks his life to find the perfect orchid, a Conradian theme from Heart of Darkness. But if that orchid can be ground up into powder and snorted like cocaine to produce a state of perfect passion, then can we blame the addicted Meryl Street for loving toothless LaRouche? Then there is violence, car chases, and the sex scene. This is the real Kaufman being sarcastic, playful, and err formulistic. I once heard it said that there are only 24 plots available to the writer in human experience.
Rating:
Summary: The becoming cover up!
Review: The absence of creativeness and the absence of absolute commitment , the desperation , the hunger for winning no matter how , the maquiavelian moods and the duality , the breakthrough in the personality of a human being metaphrically represented as twins invades this original script.
Obviously the movie always keeps a hidden card in your reservoir plot. The story is told through great narrative elipsis which overlaps one to another . This puzzle technique reminds us to Memento , in this sense. And Robert Altman 's style. (The player or Shorts cuts)
This smart use of two twins has been employed by other directors (Sean Penn in the indian runner , for instance) , but the resourec that keeps you in the seat is the richness in the second characters .
Since a no sense accidents shapes the life of a man , who tells his private life to a greddy writer, to inspire her , will be without knowing them the sparkling issue to exploid the dramatci nucleus .
The film certainly lost his fierce impact gotten in the first half of the film , seeking may be the critical gaze about the decay moral .
Good work for all the cast . Superb direction and extraordinary special effects ( the crash car in both cases)
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant piece of filmmaking
Review: I remember walking out of the theatre and saying "that was one of the most brilliantly written, brilliantly acted movies I've ever seen." And it was. Nicolas Cage puts together a performance that actually tops his stellarness in "Leaving Las Vegas." What a complex set of characters he plays (twins with totally opposite personalities) and he pulls it off amazingly. The supporting cast is first rate as well. Meryl Streep's character is complex, but as usual, she pulls it off, in fact we've come to expect this kind of performance from Ms. Streep that we sort of just take her for granted. She's excellent nonetheless. Chris Cooper is worthy of his best supporting actor role, he deserved it. The story is a tangled web that weaves the story and the story Nicolas Cage's character is trying to write together - sort of reality and alternate reality. Sounds complicated, but when you consider this movie was put together by the same guys who came up with "Being John Malkovich" I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Line of the film "It's not about what loves you bro, it's about what you love..." An absolute must see!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant??
Review: It's funny how often people use the word brilliant when describing this movie. It is not a word that you hear very often in reference to a movie and when you do the movie being described usually doesn't deserve it. This is a rare exception to that, it is a brilliant, brilliant movie. Another amazing script from the now Academy Award winning Charlie Kaufman, directed beautifully by the future Academy Award winning Spike Jonze. In my opinion these two aer just about the best people working in Hollywood today. Both movies they have teamed up on blew me away, and I can hardly wait for their next masterpiece.
There is really nothing else to say about this movie. If you have seen it you know what I am talking about, and if you haven't you need to.
Rating:
Summary: Strangest adaptation ever. Don't miss it.
Review: This is really clever, and really funny. Smartly funny, though, so pay attention while watching! What's really cool is that when this movie degenerates into a mindless action fest in its last act or so, instead of getting disgusted you laugh out loud. That is, you laugh if you get the joke. The joke being that this movie is two things: 1) an offbeat comic piece about a neurotic screenwriter tring to adapt into a film a basically non-adaptable book (a rumination on orchids, no less!), and 2) the actual end result of the screenwriter's attempts to try ANYTHING to deliver his screenplay on deadline (in other words, the movie we're seeing is the one our screenwriter friend finally wrote, complete with all the cheesy by-the-numbers action cliches he reluctantly added to the mix to get the darn thing to hold together). Other metaphors and themes abound, too, often touching on (surprise, surprise) the role of adaptation in life in order to survive and and get ahead. Finally, Cage, Cooper, and Streep are all great here, delivering naturalistic performances that nevertheless result in striking, original characters.
Rating:
Summary: What took me so long?
Review: I loved Being John Malkovich and so I don't know why it took me so long to see this wonderful movie. Adaptation is hard to put into words, but it was done by the same director (Spike Jonze) and same screenwriter (Charlie Kaufman). Kaufman also wrote Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind, which I liked, but did not love, like BJM and Adaptation. Maybe b/c it had Carrey in a more serious role, which I do not like as much as his comedic roles. This is the kind of movie that makes you want to find out more, and more and more. Like how much of the movie is true based on Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief? How much is based on Kaufman's real life? I now want to read The Orchid Thief and find out more about everyone involved, especially Charlie Kaufman. Meryl Streep and Nicholas Cage do a superb acting job, as well as, Chris Cooper as John Laroche. If you liked BJM you will love this movie. If you didn't like it or didn't get it, don't bother with this one. Also, if you liked Eternal Sunshine, you will probably also like it, and if you haven't seen any, I would start with BJM, and then either Eternal or Adaptation. But definately watch BJM before this movie. This is an excellent movie to watch over and over and get some of the subtle nuances, also I highly recommend watching it with someone so you can discuss afterwards. Unfortunately, my husband hated BJM so I watched this alone, and now need to talk to my friends who have seen it!
Rating: 
Summary: it was okay
Review: some parts of it were funny. i fell asleep so i had to watch it in two separate viewings. a different "tradition of storytelling."
Rating:
Summary: A joyous, unique treat!
Review: I just finished watching this terrific movie again. ADAPTATION is truly one of those movies that actually grows richer upon a second viewing. The first time I saw it, I was blown away by the fantastic acting and enjoyed trying to follow the dynamics of the movies. I say "dynamics" rather than twists and turns, because on the surface, there are no twists. The movie just unspools "realistically" with a generous dose of carefully labeled flashbacks. But underneath, what we're really seeing is a movie that "twists" from straightforward storytelling to a movie that may actually be the playing out of the screenplay that is being written (which is what the movie is about).
Nicolas Cage plays Charles Kaufman, the screenwriter for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, who has just been hired to write an adaptation of the bestselling THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean. Of course, the fun begins right there, because this movie is written by Charles Kaufman, who actually WAS hired to adapt THE ORCHID THIEF. Charles is a deeply neurotic and insecure person, prone to flop-sweats and bouts of either shyness or manic babbling. His internal dialogue, which we share from time to time, is a masterpiece of self-flaggelation. Charles lives with his twin brother Donald (also Cage), a sweet, simple person who idolizes the work Charles has done and also lives much more in the real world. Of course, Donald DOESN'T exist in our world. In the movie, we see how Charles becomes incapable of writing a screen play of Orlean's book, because he admires it so much, because it probably isn't ideal for a movie treatment and because Charles develops a fixation for Orleans (Meryl Streep).
From there we are shown glimpses of the story of THE ORCHID THIEF (Chris Cooper, Oscar-winner), how the man was arrested for poaching rare orchids in the swamps of Florida, and how his little story attracted reported Orlean, who went to interview the man and spent enough time with him to develop an entire book.
But as the movie progresses, the line between the "real" world and how Charles Kaufmann is beginning to reimagine Orlean's relationship with The Orchid Thief (La Rouche is his name). But there is never a clear demarcation showing when this spin into fantasy land is starting. But Orlean's adventures become more and more outrageous (an affair with LaRouche, drug use, etc.) that are blatant fictions.
And why does Charles fabricate fictional plot twists for his non-fiction screenplay. First, because his brother Donald has just out of the blue written a non-sensical action movie that has yield him a big contract and because Charles has attended (unwillingly) a screenwriting workshop and has clearly been influenced by all the "formula" he's being exhorted to incorporate into his work. His screenplay starts out as an exploration of the simple joy of loving flowers and becomes a silly action-flick.
But what's so fun about ADAPTATION is that we get to experience not only Charles difficulty in imagining a screenplay adaptation of THE ORCHID THIEF, but we get to SEE the story play out alongside it. It's three movies in one: the telling of the story of THE ORCHID THIEF, as written by Susan Orlean [by the way, there is one scene, not fiction, where LaRoche and his family are in a car accident that changes his life. It's undeniably one of the most gut-wrenchingly realistic car crashes ever put on screen. 10 seconds of film seared into your mind forever.], the telling of how a screenwriter named Charles Kaufman couldn't come up with a way to adapt the book and a totally fictional story of THE ORCHID THIEF and the screenwriter's twin brother. But they are totally intertwined. It sounds confusing, but the joy of this piece also lies in how clearly we follow it. At least, a halfway intelligent and attentive viewer will follow. This is not a wacky, slapstick movie. It's clever, smart and totally original. It's also very adult, and is meant for film viewers with some experience with watching and appreciating film.
Let me also say that Nicolas Cage gives one of his two or three best performances of all time (Oscar nominated). Meryl Streep (Oscar nominated) is sheer delight, reminding us that she must not be taken for granted...that she is totally able to play a real, flesh and blood American woman with no accent, and make her completely delightful. Chris Cooper deserved his Oscar win for his daring performance, which mixes lunacy and tragedy into one unique character. Everyone else gives very able support, especially Brian Cox as the screenwriting workshop leader. Here's a guy who simply cannot give less than a commanding performance, however small the role.
So, I very much recommend this most unique, funny, moving and well-presented film!
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