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Adaptation
on DVD (2002)
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| Starring: |
Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Judy Greer, Brian Cox, Ron Livingston, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Curtis Hanson, John Cusack, Cara Seymour, John Cu |
| Director: |
Spike Jonze |
| Studio: |
SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time: |
110 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
my favorites, Ohh, my head hurts., cocosmooth's most definative (overlooked films), Stuff I like that you might like too.., My Top 20 Films, Add these to your list..., wierd and wonderful, My DVD's, That was surprisingly good actually, Excellent Films |
| Genres: |
Drama |
| Languages: |
English |
| Hearing-impaired: |
English |
| Subtitles: |
English, Hindi, Italian |
| Released: |
04/08/2003
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| Also Available on: |
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Brief synopsis of Adaptation
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.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze again demonstrates his astonishing style and originality with this inventive comedy drama. Based on the Bafta-winning screenplay by previous collaborator Charlie Kaufman (who credits his fictitious twin brother Donald as co-writer, the first of many games Kaufman plays), the film takes the idea of life imitating art to new extremes. Instead of a straight adaptation of journalist Susan Orlean's non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, Jonze presents a surreal version of Kaufman turning the literary work into a screenplay. It's a dark, hilarious and visually intoxicating celluloid trip, made even more appealing by a riveting double turn from Nicolas Cage as both the creatively blocked Charlie and Donald, who's an aspiring screenwriter of action blockbusters. However, in a delicious tale crammed with such ingenuity, it's Meryl Streep who's the biggest revelation. She lets her hair down to incredible effect as the experience-hungry Susan Orlean, adding the final brilliant touch to a dazzling and emotionally vibrant movie.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Witty, inventive, playful movie about a blocked writer trying out various approaches to intractable material before relying on Hollywood clichés to get him through to the end; it's much funnier than it sounds, aided by some stylish direction and expertly
Entertainment Weekly
"...[Featuring] Nicolas Cage in his lightest, loosest, best performance since MOONSTRUCK....ADAPTATION demonstrates that Kaufman, the real Charlie Kaufman, has a rare and really weird talent....The guy is fun..."
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