Adaptation

Acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Cage) has been employed to adapt Susan Orlean's (Streep) novel "The Orchid Theft". This is his first adaptation and Charlie is finding it really hard, even just to get started. He wants to do the book justice and not just turn it into another Hollywood movie with car chases, shoot outs, romance and people learning valuable life lessons but how does he make a movie out of a book about flowers? Even with help from his agent, a scriptwriting guru (Cox) and his twin brother Donald (Cage), Charlie just can't get his head around the task.

Director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman take use on another wonderfully surreal trip.

After the gloriously original "Being John Malkovich", the two follow that success with a look into the mind of the writer himself, Charlie Kaufman as he struggles to adapt "The Orchid Theft" into a viable screenplay. Told in the narrative by the writer, we follow him as he tries to overcome trepidation, fear, a complete lack of confidence and the sheer anxiety of just trying to get the script started. Intermixed with Kaufman's trails and tribulations, are instalments from the book itself centring on Susan Orlean and the Orchid Theft himself, John Laroche. This all leads to a final act that is surreal, tragic and enlightening.

The performances are magnificent. Nicolas Cage unashamed performance as the self-conscious Charlie is marvellous and shows what a great actor he can be. This is even more evident when you take into account his supporting role as Donald Kaufman, Charlie's more confident and carefree twin brother, you really do realise what an underused talent Cage is. The characters may look the same but they are noticeably different as to the point that you will never mix them up. Meryl Streep is as superb as ever and her interaction with a career defining performance from Chris Cooper provides an interesting foil to Kaufman's surreal antics. Brian Cox is also great as the scriptwriting guru Robert McKee that Charlie so despises. There are also some great cameos to look out for, as the movie takes place at the same time as the shooting of Jonze and Kaufman's first collaboration.

This second collaboration between Jonze and Kaufman is just as funny and surreal as their first. While it does show down in the final act and then deliberately and ironically falls into all the traps that Charlie so wanted to avoid, the movie manages to keep on track for a funny and heart warming final scene.

Kaufman's inability to provide the studio with a straight adaptation of the novel they purchased has given birth to a highly original piece of work that both of them can be proud of. I just wonder what the real Susan Orlean thinks of it all.

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2003