Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21917 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

Discovering passion in the Florida swamps
In ADAPTATION, the audience views sequences from alternating storylines, one from the present and one 3-years past, until both converge at the film's conclusion.

In the "past", New York journalist Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is researching a story, eventually to become the book "The Orchid Thief", about John Laroche (Chris Cooper), whose passion is collecting endangered species of orchids to serve as nursery stock. Actually, he poaches them from protected nature preserves in the south Florida swamps. But, since he has Native Americans indigenous to the region doing the picking, his operation is legally untouchable under an arcane interpretation of the law.

In the "present", Nicolas Cage plays the dual roles of Charlie Kaufman and his identical twin Donald. Charlie is the accomplished screenwriter adapting "The Orchid Thief" to the Silver Screen. Donald also wants to be a screenwriter, and is in the process of authoring his first script. Charlie is handicapped by a severe lack of self esteem, which is exacerbated by his inability to find the muse for his current assignment as well a his failure to establish a relationship with a woman. It doesn't help that he shares a roof with Donald, his complete opposite. Donald is self-assured, successful with the ladies, and positively gushing with creative juices as he writes his initial screenplay.

Without the use of any special make-up tricks, each of the Kaufman twins is instantly recognizable by the viewer. Cage manages this differentiation with an acting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Charlie's gloom is consistently marked by the downturned corners of his mouth and a general hangdog look. He's Major Downer personified. On the other hand, Donald's optimistic ebullience is signaled by the upturned corners of his mouth and the twinkle in his eyes. Obviously there's more to it than this - you have to see it.

Cooper is wonderful as the Southern cracker stereotype - ball-capped, toothless, long-haired and street smart - whose life has been a sequential series of passionate obsessions. Streep is (initially) enigmatic as Orlean, whose sterile marriage and professional life has her desperately seeking passion of any sort. At the film's conclusion, when all four personalities collide in the Florida swamps, passion erupts to heights hitherto undreamed of by the characters or the audience.

ADAPTATION is undeniably clever, since its perspective comes from the screenwriter (Charlie) whose painfully evolving screenplay becomes the movie you're watching. I liked that. However, the two storylines seemed excessively contrived and joined to make a point. And what is the point? According to Sony Pictures, the film's theme is the passion that each of us longs for in life. Or perhaps it's indicated by something Donald says late in the movie, "You are what you love, not what loves you." To me, these are such obvious attributes of life and living as to comprise an unnecessary dedication of two hours of run time.

I walked out of the theater admiring this film, especially Cage's performance(s), more than being swept away by it. A film about discovering passion left me curiously unswept.

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.

Discovering passion in the Florida swamps
In ADAPTATION, the audience views sequences from alternating storylines, one from the present and one 3-years past, until both converge at the film's conclusion.

In the "past", New York journalist Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is researching a story, eventually to become the book "The Orchid Thief", about John Laroche (Chris Cooper), whose passion is collecting endangered species of orchids to serve as nursery stock. Actually, he poaches them from protected nature preserves in the south Florida swamps. But, since he has Native Americans indigenous to the region doing the picking, his operation is legally untouchable under an arcane interpretation of the law.

In the "present", Nicolas Cage plays the dual roles of Charlie Kaufman and his identical twin Donald. Charlie is the accomplished screenwriter adapting "The Orchid Thief" to the Silver Screen. Donald also wants to be a screenwriter, and is in the process of authoring his first script. Charlie is handicapped by a severe lack of self esteem, which is exacerbated by his inability to find the muse for his current assignment as well a his failure to establish a relationship with a woman. It doesn't help that he shares a roof with Donald, his complete opposite. Donald is self-assured, successful with the ladies, and positively gushing with creative juices as he writes his initial screenplay.

Without the use of any special make-up tricks, each of the Kaufman twins is instantly recognizable by the viewer. Cage manages this differentiation with an acting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Charlie's gloom is consistently marked by the downturned corners of his mouth and a general hangdog look. He's Major Downer personified. On the other hand, Donald's optimistic ebullience is signaled by the upturned corners of his mouth and the twinkle in his eyes. Obviously there's more to it than this - you have to see it.

Cooper is wonderful as the Southern cracker stereotype - ball-capped, toothless, long-haired and street smart - whose life has been a sequential series of passionate obsessions. Streep is (initially) enigmatic as Orlean, whose sterile marriage and professional life has her desperately seeking passion of any sort. At the film's conclusion, when all four personalities collide in the Florida swamps, passion erupts to heights hitherto undreamed of by the characters or the audience.

ADAPTATION is undeniably clever, since its perspective comes from the screenwriter (Charlie) whose painfully evolving screenplay becomes the movie you're watching. I liked that. However, the two storylines seemed excessively contrived and joined to make a point. And what is the point? According to Sony Pictures, the film's theme is the passion that each of us longs for in life. Or perhaps it's indicated by something Donald says late in the movie, "You are what you love, not what loves you." To me, these are such obvious attributes of life and living as to comprise an unnecessary dedication of two hours of run time.

I walked out of the theater admiring this film, especially Cage's performance(s), more than being swept away by it. A film about discovering passion left me curiously unswept.