Adaptation
DIR: Spike Jonze • WRI: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman • PROD: Jonathan Demme, Vincent Landay, Edward Saxon • DOP: Lance Acord • ED: Eric Zumbrunnen • CAST: Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper

This, the Oscar-winning second feature from the team of director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman retains the quirky intellectualism of their previous film, Being John Malkovich, and applies it this time not to world of writing, and in particular the adaptation (hence title) of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief. One part recreation of the book, one part satire on the artistic conflicts of such a project and one part synthesis of the first two this is an occasionally befuddling mess carried through with aplomb from all concerned.

The film unfolds in a sort of pastiche style where we begin with Charlie Kaufman, a frustrated screenwriter in his forties struggling with his present assignment, an adaptation of Orlean's novel, a book based on internal narratives and character. Charlie tries and fails to find a cohesive form for the story while at the same time his twin brother Donald (also played by Cage), his mirror opposite, manages to take a throwaway comment from his brother and use it to write a structurally proficient blockbuster of mindboggling absurdity.

Throughout we get pieces of Orlean's work with the protagonist of her book as played by Chris Cooper (who got an Oscar for his role), Charlie's angst and social ineffectiveness, his brother's inexplicable success and it all comes together in the end while somehow anticipating any criticisms you may have along the way. And that's the rub. The screenplay is so self conscious that it openly states it's faults along the way making it impossible at times to engage with, much like a snake eating its own tail. The end result is impressive but ultimately alienating, a film that makes the process of criticism impossible thus shutting off an important intellectual avenue with its audience. There are no faults with what is on the screen, every performance from Cage and Streep down to cameos from the Malkovich cast rises to the occasion and at times the screenplay manages to become the star all on its own as we weave in and out of plot threads. But towards the end as the absurdity sets in so does an awareness of the next joke, the next trick and predictability becomes the eventual outcome. It is a perfect work in some ways, but also an in-joke, for someone else's benefit.

Niall Kitson