Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5484 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Latin
• Subtitled in: English, Italian, Hindi
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Perhaps the cleverest Hollywood movie of its generation, Adaptation is a loose adaptation of Susan Orlean's novelistic non-fiction book The Orchid Thief. It is also a unique exercise in autobiographical fantasy on the part of screenwriter Charles Kaufman (who shares credit with his fictional brother) and a worthy follow-up to director Spike Jonze's first Kaufman-scripted movie Being John Malkovich. Opening on the set of Being John Malkovich, with the writer (played by an intense Nicolas Cage) ordered out of the way by a minion, Adaptation. proceeds to follow more strands than spaghetti.

The neurotic Kaufman wins the job of turning Orlean's book into a script and has trouble getting a handle on it, while his more upbeat brother (also Cage) takes a Robert McKee scriptwriting seminar and cranks out a serial killer screenplay that attracts a major buzz. In flashbacks, Orlean (Meryl Streep) works on a New Yorker article and then a book about "orchid thief" John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a toothless Sam Shepard figure who heads a crew of Seminoles who poach rare flowers ostensibly in order to preserve them from extinction, encouraging the Darwinian process of adaptation essential to evolution. Kaufman ends up taking a seminar with McKee (Brian Cox, hilarious) and the film changes (or adapts) into a bizarre Hollywood thriller with drugs manufactured from flowers, a shoot-out between the writers and the subjects in the Florida everglades and a defiant climactic use of a plot device (deus ex machina) and narrative strategy (voice-over) McKee has ordered Kaufman not to use.

So dazzling that it defuses the argument that the hero genuinely has no idea what to do with his material, this film examines the rules of filmmaking and breaks them, shoots off in all directions (a brief history of life on earth sped up) but is held together by performance and direction, and will give the viewer enough material for a week's worth of debates and arguments afterwards. --Kim Newman

Special Features
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen
Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English, Italian
Subtitles: English, English hard of hearing, Hindi, Italian

Synopsis
Following up their acclaimed debut, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze are back to metaphysical moviemaking with ADAPTATION. The film stars Nicolas Cage as both Charlie Kaufman and his fictionalised identical twin brother Donald. While the boisterous Donald freeloads off his sibling and works on a serial-killer movie script, Charlie is tormented by both his own army of neuroses and his new project, adapting Susan Orlean's book THE ORCHID THIEF into a screenplay. As Charlie struggles to shape the nonfiction novel into a film, he begins writing himself into the story of Orlean (Meryl Streep), a sad-eyed journalist, and her subject, renegade Florida flower expert John Laroche (Chris Cooper). The resulting tale extends far beyond the scope of the book, stretching from Hollywood to New York to...Hollywood four billion years ago.
Equally as inventive as BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION revels in its gloriously absurd premise. Kaufman and Jonze skillfully sidestep the pitfalls of such a seemingly self-indulgent project, creating a multilayered film that focuses on the writing process as well as the nature of beauty, the beauty of nature, and dozens of other significant themes. Cage makes a stunning return to pre-Bruckheimer form in the roles of the Kaufman brothers, giving their identical appearances completely different personalities and making them believable to boot. Meanwhile, the consistently excellent Streep and the often underrated Cooper are perfectly matched as Orlean and Laroche. Even the less central roles are played by great actors--Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ron Livingston appear as supporting characters. Careening wildly between the hilarious, the ridiculous, and the poignant, Kaufman and Jonze's ADAPTATION is another fine example of their bravura yet sincere style of cinema.

Customer Reviews

Adaptation
I guess if you are a Nicolas Cage fan then this film is for you.

I would go as far as to say that his performance in the central role (a big mistake here) is ordinary at best and the film, which has the potential to be seriously interesting and off-beat, is dragged down as a result. Even the fabulous Ms Streep cannot raise the standards in this one.

What a disappointment.

unique- but not for everybody
From the reviews posted here, it would seem there is no middle ground reaction to this film. Like marmite you either love it or hate it. I loved it- it is one of my favourite films of all time, and one that I could watch again and again.
It is off beat, quirky, breaks all the rules of storytelling in film, and yet has so many layers it challenges the viewer to keep up.
If you favour off beat non-mainstream film and enjoyed 'Being John Machovich, Im sure you to will find it an awe inspiring experience. If you are more into mainstream hollywood blockbusters, I would probably steer clear.

what?
As duncun repeatedly says this film is 'seroiusly f.ucked up'. I still have abolutely no idea what went on. I think the whole idea was taken slightly toofar and lost most of any interesting plot that may have existed in the original idea. Others may like it but frankly I was glad when the credits finally rolled.