jonsefcik
The first time I watched this movie, I thought "this is either pretentious garbage or pure genius". After letting it sink in for a few days, I thought about it and certain pieces started fitting together. I decided to give it a second watch, and afterwards I was like "oh of course, its genius".I think a lot of people who criticize this film don't understand what the film is going for. I'll try not to spoil anything, but I left a disclaimer since I'll be roughly outlining the plot. A common criticism I see is that the film tries to reject the Hollywood screen writing clichés but chickens out at the end for a dumb action-packed climax. Here's the thing: The film uses the 3-act structure in an ironic way. The film is about the writing of the film. Early on in the film, Charlie Kaufman (the character, not the real person) is trying to stay faithful to the source material he's given to adapt. The source material is The Orchid Thief, a nonlinear book that doesn't really follow a typical 3-act structure. When he experiences writer's block, he asks his twin brother, who went to a screen writing seminar, for help. He even goes to the screen writing seminar himself. Every piece of advice he gets makes the script more formulated, and thus so does the film. It should be fairly obvious once we see Susan Orlean (the character, not the real person) snorting plant drugs and fornicating with John Laroche (the character) that fiction has taken over. That's also why Charlie and Donald follow her to Florida, and crazy stuff involving guns and an alligator ensues. The film's ending works on multiple levels. It can be enjoyed by the average moviegoer as a dumb fun climax but more discerning viewers will be in on the joke.One thing I want to bring up before I wrap up is Nicolas Cage's performance as the fictional Charlie Kaufman. At first I thought "oh come on, there's no way anyone is that insecure and submissive" but then I saw videos of interviews with the real Charlie Kaufman and was like "oh wow, Nick Cage nailed it". Its not an exact recreation, but it definitely works as a fictional portrayal.There's more details I'll leave for you to discover on your own. All you have to know is this is a very clever film and serves as a great satire of Hollywood tropes. Personally, I think this movie is perfect, and there's nothing I would change that I could imagine making the film objectively better. Charlie Kaufman is one of the most fascinating screenwriters working in Hollywood today and I'd say all of his films are worth a watch!
eagandersongil
Few directors in the industry today have the ability to convey cinematographically the scripts of Charlie Kaufman, Spike Jonze is one of them. "Adaptation" is a film that surprises by its narrative supported by good performances and a technique aligned to the script. Telling a story that is adapting as the book progresses, the script is confusing to the viewer at first glance, but reaches a great brilliance if the viewer of a second chance for the work, the script tells a story of an antisocial screenwriter Who is unable to see his qualities and practice social interactions because of this, his twin brother that the only thing he knows is to find these qualities in his brother and has a filter in his vision that inhibits him from proceeding unless it is in his brother's footsteps , A successful journalist who ends up discovering that she does not live life to the full, and a man full of random passions that makes the journalist question his sense of love, life and society, are four very interesting characters, different and at the same time Is completed in a drama where one is based on the other to tell his story. The man of various passions, John Laroche (Chris Cooper), he really discovers a passion and a sense in life, and this inspires journalist Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) to write a book about him, which in turn inspires The rhetorician Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) to write a screenplay for this book, which for his time inspires Donald (Nicolas Cage) to become a brother-inspired screenwriter. Each one lives his story, and each one has its problems, but from the moment a character disengages from the social bubble and discovers a passion generates an excess of discomfort and curiosity in the characters, the film deals in its principle on the lie, The band of Laroche revolves around an orchid, not because of its beauty, but rather to extract drugs from it, Kaufman makes a mess and proves that all the characters without exception are completely lost in their sense of life, and even Who finds it, is a lie, because the passion of Laroche, is a lie. Kaufmann still jokes about making a concept art film and not appealing to sex, guns and explosions, but ends up appealing to sex, guns and explosions, because he discovers that life is not as boring as he imagined, things happen, unexpected paths are Traces, people die, life changes, and include sex, weapons and explosions was part of life, carrying, was part of his script. Kaufman takes the film as Stephen King, a whole narrative and made bow, characters are fully developed, and when the element of supernatural appears, it really frightens, as it is not what we were expecting, in the scripts of Kaufman, when the madness arrives, She picks us up completely and leaves us bewildered, this is yummy and it happens this long several times. Technically the film is good, it has a soundtrack that mixes common pop sound, has a clear photograph, Spike Jonze is much more contained in this film, and does the basics without trying a lot, but does what it has to do, it is difficult to guide the Acts of the film or talk about the rhythm of it, because it gains pace and loses, wins and loses .... Nicolas Cage is fine and Meryl Streep also, nothing of great performances, although I think that Chris Cooper steals the scenes always that shows. "Adaptation" is Spike Jonze's second film, where he lets the rhetorician's work stand out over his direction - of course, he has adapted a wacky script with extraordinary competence - nor does the rhythm problems spoil the film at all, The film has a perfect message and can be taken a million interpretations of it, unfortunately many will misinterpret the third act, and take away the seriousness of the long classifying it as any crazy comedy, this is sad, it could be different, but it is a Great movie and deserves to be seen and reviewed.
nadrojh
Adaptation is a brilliant movie about a passionate man, a book, and a script. Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman did an incredible job directing and writing. The script is a masterpiece flawlessly layering one story on top of another. I also likes the use of voice over. It is well shot, especially the scenes in the swamp. I also like the use of scenes of the Being John Malkovich set. It has a wonderful cast with incredible performances by Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, and Nicholas Cage who plays dual roles. Adaptation is a brilliant movie. It is a fun adventure in the art of storytelling. It is one of the best movies to come out of the 2000's. It is one of my favorite movies, I can watch it over and over. It is a movie anybody interested in movies should see.
tapio_hietamaki
Much like Spike Jonze's and Charlie Kaufman's other creative endeavor 'Being John Malkovich', this is a movie that's drenched in layers of metatext. It's a movie that's about the making of itself, starring the film's creators as its characters. Nicolas Cage plays the screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, and also his fictional twin brother Donald Kaufman (who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay despite not really existing), and Meryl Streep plays Susan Orlean, the writer of the book 'The Orchid Thief' that the movie is based on.Because the screenplay is so dense most of the movie is focused on untangling the mess of reality and fiction - or, rather, tangling them up even more so that by the end you have to check Wikipedia for what is real and what isn't. Actually the book that this 'adaptation' is based on drops to the background, and the movie is more about the creative process. Meryl Streep's performance is hilarious and Nicolas Cage is tragicomic in his resigned depression.
