Review of Adaptation. (2002) by Connor _ — 05 May 2010
An interesting concept, and an interesting film. The screenplay is very good, written by Charlie & Donald Kaufman, who are the star characters played both by Nicolas Cage in a notable performance. In the film, Cage is struggling to adapt Meryl Streep's book into a screenplay.
Streep plays Susan Orlean, real-life author of the book "The Orchid Thief", off of which the film's screenplay was adapted from. Streep's main character in the book, John Laroche, played by Chris Cooper an an Oscar-winning role, is, in the film, a real person fasinated with orchids, an endangered plant in Florida.
As Streep writes about Cooper, she goes from noting him as holding "delusions of grandeur" to being completely fasinated and sexually attracted to him, with the help of Cooper's orchid narcotic.
Charlie Kaufman-Cage is a troubled and underrespected writer with absolutely no clue how to adapt the book. His brother, Donald Kaufman-Cage, is inspired by him to become a screenwriter himself, and is an immediate success with his first screenplay, which, in truth, is shown to be a bullshit screenplay but loved by the Cages' agent and the rest of Hollywood.
This is a familiar feeling to anyone, me included, who's had a sibling steal their thunder in something they felt was really their's. Charlie-Cage is a near-paranoid, desperate writer sufferin from writer's bloc with this new screenplay, which he says is virtually impossible to adapt.
He reluctantly turns to his brother, who is glad to help. Meanwhile, Streep digs deeper into Cooper's chaotic and unique past, growing more and more drawn to him and his ever-changing "loves".
Throughout the film, Charlie-Cage writes by a realistic moral, believing nothing exciting and life changing ever happens in real life, and wanting his screenplay to model that. A crime-thriller turn towards the end, involving all four primary characters, is a drastic and unfitting turn for the otherwise unique but subtle dramedy film.
Streep and Cooper give extraordinary performances. B+.
This review of Adaptation. (2002) was written by Connor _ on 05 May 2010.
Adaptation. has generally received very positive reviews.
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