Adaptation (2002)
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Reviews Counted: 197
Fresh: 179 | Rotten: 18
Dizzyingly original, the loopy, multi-layered Adaptation is both funny and thought-provoking.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 5
Dizzyingly original, the loopy, multi-layered Adaptation is both funny and thought-provoking.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 164,638
My Rating
Movie Info
The creative team behind Being John Malkovich -- director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman -- return with this equally offbeat comedy, in which Kaufman himself becomes the leading character. Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is a gifted but profoundly neurotic screenwriter who, after the success of Being John Malkovich, has been hired to write a script adapted from the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. But while Charlie is obsessive about his work, he's also intensely
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Cast
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Nicolas Cage
Charlie Kaufman, Donald... -
Meryl Streep
Susan Orlean -
Chris Cooper
John Laroche -
Brian Cox
Robert McKee -
Tilda Swinton
Valerie -
Cara Seymour
Amelia -
Judy Greer
Alice the Waitress -
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Caroline -
Ron Livingston
Marty -
Jay Tavare
Matthew Osceola -
Stephen Tobolowsky
Neely -
Peter Jason
Defense Attorney -
Curtis Hanson
Orlean's Husband -
Catherine Keener
Herself -
John Malkovich
Himself -
Lance Acord
Himself -
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Adaptation Trailer & Photos
All Critics (206) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (181) | Rotten (20) | DVD (32)
For two-thirds of its running time the film is close to genius. But there's still no third act.
Top CriticIt's the sort of movie that keeps reinventing itself and nudging us in the ribs as it does. You'll want to see it soon, because everyone you know will be talking about it.
Few recent movies have conveyed so forcefully how people can feel shut out by their own lack of passion, how they yearn to end the emptiness.
There's a flash of excitement to this clever film and its performances.
Mired in the inertia of Charlie's writer's block, as if the real Kaufman never found his own passion for the material.
One-of-a-kind near-masterpiece.
A fine accomplishment from all involved, especially Charlie Kauffman, who has written a bewildering and captivating movie, which bares his mind, heart and soul.
At all times, "Adaptation." carries the thrillingly unpredictable charge of a film writing itself before your eyes. Spike Jonze matches Charlie Kaufman's tumble through time, neuroticism, fact and fiction with depictions of creation at a cellular level.
Adult stuff only but hilarious and fresh.
An impressive follow-up to Being John Malkovich, Adaptation is even more playful, amusing, metanarrative and metaphysical than Jonze's first film, plus it has Nicolas Cage in a dual role and Meryl Streep in one of her wildest turns.
Adaptation would all be insufferably clever-clever were its motivation not so genuine. Instead it is experimental, funny, with a tightly-repressed anger and a desire to dig out truth rather than take refuge in the usual artifice.
Some parts of the film are classic subversions of Hollywood convention that are intriguing by themselves but don't quite gel as a whole.
It will confound some and inspire others to riff endlessly on its mysteries.
It's almost mind-numbing to think how Mr. Kaufman could possibly follow-up this gem. I'm just glad I don't have to write it, but I'd be happy to watch what he goes through to create it.
Adaptation could very well be one of the best films of the year -- it truly is a roller coaster ride of pioneering pandemonium, and shouldn't be missed.
Really, did we need Kaufman to point out how boneheaded Hollywood can be? And does he do all that much better when, ultimately, he looks to mainstream conventions for the means to put the finishing touches on his tale?
Kaufman once again pens a brilliant mind bender chock full of originality.
Kaufman is nothing if not brilliant...
[Adaptation suggests] that there is something 'not of this earth' about humanity, that we are meant for higher, better things than mere adaptation.
If you liked the surreal Being John Malkovich...then you won't want to miss this collaboration.
Thanks a lot, Charlie Kaufman. Thanks to you, I and millions of others can no longer use writer's block as a valid excuse for the sh*ttiness of our writing.
Blurring fact and fiction more than any film in recent memory, Adaptation is a brilliantly bizarre and completely unique experience.
Audience Reviews for Adaptation
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Herself: I suppose I do have one unembarrassed passion. I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately.
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- Robert McKee: And God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you! That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of the character.
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- Donald Kaufman: You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
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- Robert McKee: Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it! I don't have any bloody use for it!
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- Donald Kaufman: You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
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- Charlie Kaufman: Why didn't I go in? I'm such a chicken. I'm such an idiot. I should have kissed her. I've blown it. I should just go and knock on her door and just kiss her. It would be romantic. It would be something we could someday tell our kids. I'm gonna do that right now.
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Latest News on Adaptation
October 3, 2012:
Charlie Kaufman's Frank or Francis Needs $10 MillionAnyone have a few extra dollars lying around?
June 26, 2012:
No Frank or Francis for Charlie KaufmanElizabeth Banks says it "fell apart at the last minute."
February 27, 2012:
Salma Hayek Believes in The ProphetShe's lining up financing for an adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's classic collection of inspirational...
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Foreign Titles
- El ladrón de orquídeas (ES)
In this brilliantly written semi-biopic, he plays a dual role as both Charlie Kaufman and his fictional brother Donald. Any serious writer, whether novice or professional, will find much to relate to in the anguish, writer's block and mental overanalyzing that transcends within Charlie's head. They even talk about the same screenwriting book that I currently have on my bedside table. And if you've ever suffered from social awkwardness, this nails it perfectly too.
Director Spike Jonze, whom I'm best familiar with through his appearances in Jackass, creates intellectual magic in his collaboration with Kaufman. The story gets a little weird sometimes, as you might imagine, but never to the point where it comes off as pretentious. It's the best kind of creativity at work here, where its originality is only exceeded by the fantastic performances. There's so many wonderful elements to this film, both visually and internally, that you feel grateful for every second you get to spend within its meta-world.
An amazing vehicle for Cage, that really changes your view of him as an actor. With this in mind, it also makes it more tragic to witness his descent into B-movie territory. I still have faith though, that some day - perhaps when we least expect it - he'll reclaim his long lost dignity and muster up another tour-de-force turn like this one. Not likely, but here's hoping!
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