ADAPTATION (2002) 3 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ron Livingston and Jay Tavare. Music by Carter Burwell. Director of Photography Lance Acord. Based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Directed by Spike Jonze. Rated R. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.


The trials and tribulations of the creative mind run amuck in Adaptation.

The pain, loneliness and insecurity of the screenwriting process are vividly and painfully brought to slovenly life in this self-deprecating, biting and witty feature written by Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother, Donald, and directed by Spike Jonze.

Never has a writer’s multiplicity of demons been so publicly displayed as in this new collaboration between the same writer and director who brought you Being John Malkovich.

Ostensibly, the movie was to be a screen version of Susan Orlean’s best seller, The Orchid Thief, but when screenwriter Charlie Kaufman suffered a huge case of writer’s block and could not devise a suitable cinematic equivalent of the novel, what appears now on the screen took root.

Kaufman’s struggles metamorphosed into a story about a writer searching for a concept.

As played by Nicolas Cage, Charlie Kaufman, despite his success, is a self-loathing, insecure individual who considers himself fat, bald, shy and a total loser, especially around women.

Hired to adapt Orlean’s novel into a cohesive screenplay, Charlie, despite reading the book, cannot articulate Orlean’s views on flowers and the world on paper.

Various concepts fly from his self-tortured brain, including a one-minute montage that goes from the creation of Earth to the present.

Charlie knows, however, what he does not want to put on screen: No sex, guns or car chases; no life lessons.

Compounding Charlie’s struggles is his twin brother, Donald (also Cage), a fictitious creation for the film. Donald, who has no experience, decides one day to try his hand at a screenplay. Charlie, of course, is skeptical. Writing, he tells his clueless sibling, “is a journey into the unknown. It’s not like making model airplanes.”

Charlie continues to plug away, rejecting concept after concept, growing more frantic and frustrated after each attempt. He wants to write a movie about the “miracle of flowers,” but realizes that’s not cinematic.

The movie continually jumps from present to past and back again as it also chronicles Susan Orlean’s encounter with John Laroche (Chris Cooper), the Florida orchid thief who Orlean (Meryl Streep) first chronicled in an article for The New Yorker, then expanded into a book.

The writer becomes infatuated with her subject, just as Charlie, while reading the novel, becomes infatuated with Susan.

Cooper’s Laroche is a gem of a character, a dirty rascal, but also a gifted spell-binding storyteller.

As the film progresses, Charlie becomes more and more desperate, especially after Donald easily sells his cops-and-robbers thriller screenplay, entitled “The Three.”

During its last several minutes, Adaptation seems to veer off course, but it is open to interpretation whether the real Kaufman either ran dry of ideas or intentionally added a further tweak at not only the movie industry but also audience expectations.

The film’s performances are wonderfully adroit, especially Cage in the dual role of Charlie and Donald. As Charlie, Cage acts morose, downtrodden and uncomfortable in his own body. As Donald, he appears lighter, more at ease with himself as well as his fellow human beings.

Streep again shows her flair for comedy as Orlean, the New York writer who seems so out of place among the Seminoles and natives of the Florida swamplands.

But Cooper steals the film as the toothless eccentric Laroche, and his contribution should be recognized with a supporting actor Oscar nomination.

Adaptation may leave some viewers confounded. After all, centering an entire movie around the creative process is daunting, but Kaufman, with help from Donald — to whom the film is dedicated — and Jonze make it work.

And it is Donald who finally teaches Charlie a constructive life lesson: “You are what you love, not what loves you.” An interesting concept from one of the most original and adventurous features of 2002.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies.
Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom