::READERS REVIEWS::

Witty and deep! - Having never truly been a fan of Nicolas Cage (and even less so after his stint into action movies!) I had not expected to enjoy this movie as much as I did. I actually saw it mainly to re-see Chris Cooper who in my mind is one of the best actors of our time.....

The movie will seem odd and the characters exagerated to those looking for a 'conventional movie' to see and it is important you are not looking for a story line but rather for little gems among the lines and parts of the characters you can recognise in yourself or those around you!

Great!

AMAZING - This doesn't cater to the crowd that just wants to enjoy a movie, but as a screenwriter myself whose allegiance always skirts the line between mainstream contrivance and indie banality I felt less alone after watching this movie, and that's what great art does for people. I didn't even get it the first time, but I wasn't so quick to call it "pretentious" because I don't take incomprehensible things as a shot to my ego like some of the reviewers here. Don't watch this expecting to be wowed, and you will be if you're any type of artist who's ever struggled with the choice between populism and possibly alienating self-expression.

Adaptation, DVD - The film is nothing like the book, The Orchid Thief, but it is an amusing story with greats like Meryl Streep and Nicholas Cage and the actor, Cooper. I enjoyed the scenes set in Miami, Broward county and the Everglades, swamps I had hiked in, too. I recently became interested in orchid culture and so The Orchid Thief book was recommended. Most of it set in Miami-Dade county where I live; many of the sites and people I am familiar with. I recently met people who had had disastrous dealings with the hero, John LaRoche, and was regaled with these hilarious stories. They all encouraged me to see the film, which they loved and they felt had a very satisfying ending , to them.

I purchased several copies of the DVD to give as Christmas gifts, which were much appreciaterd and enjoyed.

Horrible. Uninteresting pitifull characters. - I tried to watch this movie, I made it through over and hour of torture and shut it off.

Maybe my expectations were too high. The critics loved this movie, they called it funny. Big name actors. I thought it was... junk. Too much unhappiness and dispair for me.

the insane New York state of mind? - If this is critically acclaimed as a movie than we have New york critics who are
in therapy or need to be? I suppose there are two ways to look at this movie:
a through the looking glass comedy about intellectual instability
or just a play by someone who should probably be in prison for
the safety of the community? Something like van Gogh
cutting off his ear without the excuse of great art?
In the decline of the Roman Empire the ruling class just lost it.
That behavior seems to be the state of New York in the entertainment industry?
People get critically acclaimed for making trash and
calling it art.
I think the totally lost fellow who gives the screen writing class
kind of sums up how bad thing really are?

Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is trying to adapt the book The Orchid Thief from Susan Orleans (Meryl Streep) about John La Roche (Chris Cooper) who goes to various places in Miami to find orchids to cultivate, but doesn't want to add much to the actual story. Because of this he's having a hard time adapting the book to movie form. He's also living with his brother Donald (Nicolas Cage) who has decided that he will become a screenwriter and is working on a screenplay about serial killers called "The Three".

Charlie Kaufman (yes, that's a real person) is a brilliant screenwriter. Having written the little seen Human Nature, the quirky Being John Malkovich, and the critically acclaimed and brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie was trying to come up with something new with his adaptation of Susan Orleans' book The Orchid Thief. He was having a very difficult time with adapting the book the way he wanted, but eventually came up with this idea to meld real life with fiction with a little help from his (fictional) brother, Donald Kaufman (who also earned a co-screenwriting credit).

Adaptation is a brilliant film, as are most of Kaufman's works, melding together his real world works at adapting The Orchid Thief with the fictional account seemlessly. Throughout the film you get that this is a true story, especially when you review to realize that the character names are names of real people (with very few exceptions, such as Donald Kaufman), and then at the end, once you realize that this is a work of fiction, you can still see the work of Donald Kaufman on the film as if Charlie was channeling the character's ambitions in an effort to figure out how to end the movie. Naturally, in the end, when you find out more about the movie this only works to the story's advantage.

Nicolas Cage isn't typically the actor that you'd look to to portray a character like this, or I should say, character's like this. Charlie and Donald are two totally different characters with separate sensibilities, but Nic plays them with amazing affinity for the shortcomings and strengths of the characters. Naturally, Oscar winning actress Meryl Streep throws herself fully into the game as always, and you also have a dose of the amazing Brian Cox, which is always worth noting. Chris Cooper as the eccentric orchid thief John La Roche steals the show though.

This is a movie that I have to highly recommend. It's funny and stylish but doesn't lose it's focus on story and character building. The movie does a great job at remaining faithful to the material Charlie was originally trying to adapt by focusing some of the attention and narration on passages of the book, while also remaining entertaining, especially in the relationship between the two brothers. I only wish more screenwriters could be as inventive as Charlie Kaufman.

4.5/5

Mindbending Odyssey -

Nicholas Cage plays twin writers in this crazy surreal porridge of creativity. Adaptation follows the ending of the movie "Being John Malkovich" and stars (along with Cage) Meryl Streep, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, John Malkovich and Cara Seymour. The noted Spike Jonze directs this ensemble.

Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman twins are wickedly identical writers, yet have markedly different personalities. Donald is outgoing and a steadfastly cheerful freeloader in Charlie's home. He is working on a serial-killer movie script and picks constantly at Charlie's brain for ideas. Charlie has neuroses and worries and struggles to shape a novel about flowers, "The Orchid Thief" written by Susan Orlean (Streep) into an interesting screenplay.

Charlie is obsessed by the novel and writes himself into story of Orlean (Streep). She is a weary writer that is hunting for passion in life and connects with a Florida orchid-hunter named Laroche (Chris Cooper) who loves the journey in finding treasures (Orchids, Fish, Porn) he wants. She envys his lust for life and wants to feel a part of his mileu. She feels meaningless and boring although she leaves a comfortable married life to stretch and grow. The movie has many layers and is like the rock formations from the dawn of time.

Adaptation is a mindbending odyssey that has wry humor, narration of Charlie's wild thoughts and fulfilling originality.

You will twist you mind getting hold of this unique storyline - I don't think I have seen a film like Adaptation. It is unique. It is a film about the difficulty of screen writing a film based on a plotless book which is the film that you are actually viewing. Did you follow that? Actually it is a funny film with Nicholas Cage playing a totally insecure screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman. Screenwriter Kaufman and director, Spike Jonze, have produced a film full of irony. Nicholas Cage's performance was perfect, filling me with anxiety as I watch the character Charlie Kaufman in all his insecurity and self-defeating life choices. Charlie Kaufman has been asked to write the script for a book that is actually more about reflection than about any discernable structured narrative. The task is driving him crazy since he sees the art in the original book, The Orchid Thief, but he struggles to figure out how to make it into a script for a film. He is plagued by a twin brother who wishes to become a screenwriter and is taking a class on screenwriting. Cage plays both roles perfectly. The twin brothers, Charlie and Donald, must be enough alike to appear as realistic twins but yet different enough for the viewers to easily distinguish them. Kaufman, Jonze, and Cage pull off this difficult task perfectly. The book, The Orchid Thief, written by New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, is based on real events but the events don't add up to a film. Eventually the film spins into wild fiction after Charlie gets the advice of a screen writing seminar teacher.

Meryl Streep is excellent as Susan Orlean, the sophisticated writer, who feels passionless and thus is fascinated by those folks who do feel passion in their life. Chris Cooper, possibly the best actor in Hollywood, plays the orchid thief. After seeing Cooper in this role, I am convinced he can play any part to perfection.

The title of the film, Adaptation, has multiple meanings in the film, both in regard to biological evolution and human growth. The first 80% of the film is about Kaufman's inability to write the script, however after he gets advice from the screenwriter instructor, the last 20% becomes pure wild Hollywood with car chases, car crashes, attempted murders, and romantic resolution. The last 20% is pure ironic commentary on film-making as well as a perfect contrast to the previous 80% about writer's block. The film is unique, clever, thought-provoking, and wonderfully acted. It is highly recommended.

I Can't Quite Understand ... - ... why I don't hate this film! It's pretentious, meandering, self-indulgent, self-referential -- everything that typifies post-modernist literature -- and plot-driven without a plot. But hate it I don't. I won't go so far as to say I love it, but I watched it intently and found myself defending it from a couple of people who thought it was "boring and confusing". It was not boring, to me at any rate, and not at all confusing. If anything, it might not have been confusing enough. The meta-meanings were awfully obvious.

The premise of the un-plot is that screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has been hired to adapt a popular novel, The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, but suffers pathetic 'writer's block' over the task, eventually becoming obsessed with the author, whom he's never met, and stalking her until he discovers a shocking secret. Well now, Charlie Kaufman is the actual screenwriter of Adaptation but "Charlie Kaufman" is played in the film by Nicolas Gage, who also plays Charlie Kaufman's twin brother "Donald", while the real Donald Kaufman is given shared credit for the screenplay. Susan Orlean is a real writer for The New Yorker magazine and she really did write a book titled The Orchid Thief. In the film, she's played by Meryl Streep. Ms. Orlean has to be a very Good Sport about her work, since it is "adapted" with demonic abandon and portrays her in activities (imagined) that must have scandalized her colleagues and friends. The film's Charlie Kaufman is neurotic to the point of comedy, which is in fact the chief point of the comedy. His brother is utterly neurosis-clean but a bit of a dimwit. The focal character of Orlean's book is a shady Floridian misfit named John Laroche, the 'Orchid Thief' of the title. Laroche is perceived on three levels by the film audience: as he is described by Orlean in her book, as he appears in the film in flashbacks being interviewed by Orlean for the book, and as he is envisioned by Kaufman on the basis only of reading the book under adaptation. Yes, it is a set of Chinese Boxes, mirrors reflecting mirrors, a play within a play within a play ...

... so why did I like it? For one thing, I expected it to be 'weird' and I almost knew I would like it. I sought it because I'd recently seen Charlie Kaufman's later movie "Synecdoche New York", which I considered the most interesting film of recent years. I'm working backwards through Kaufman's oeuvre. "Adaptation" isn't as good as "Synecdoche New York". In fact, it seems almost like a practice piece for the later film. But it's ambitious. AMBITIOUS! Precisely what most films, especially American film, are not. Its ambitions outweigh its pretensions. Also, the acting is incredibly good. Meryl Streep plays Susan Orlean as the evolving character the plot/unplot requires. Chris Cooper is perfect as Laroche; he's exactly the same person no matter who is perceiving him, and that person is as real as table salt. Nicolas Gage? Frankly, I didn't think the man could act at all. I thought he was one of those Hollywood icons who played the same guy, himself, in every film. Ho boy, he surprised me. In Adaptation he plays two guys, the two Kaufmans, side-by-side with totally different affect, plausibly distinct personalities. Even their sitting postures are distinguishable. The real Donald Kaufman, by the by, must be another Good Sport, considering what happens to his counterpart in the movie.

This is an intelligent movie, a movie for intellectual cinema fans. I can safely say that "you" will either relish its intelligence or find it painfully dull. But it won't be a choice that depends on the film; intelligence is in the mind of the beholder.