Adaptation is a good film, I think. Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter famous for writing mind bending films like Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There are a few things to be said about writers who put themselves in their fictional stories. Kaufman's crippling self-doubt succeeds in transmitting a special, resonating frequency connecting writer, character, and viewer. Making himself a character, I think was also meant to comment on the Writer's inevitable agenda. Every story is inevitably told in a way that flatters its teller and Kaufman reminds us not to fully trust our narrator. In such ways, Adaptation is kind of deep. It's meta and dishes a little disrespect to its viewers, all in good fun. The premise: Kaufman is writing a film adaptation for a book called The Orchid Thief. It's a serious challenge, so instead Adaptation is about the writing of the adaptation of The Orchid Thief. Clever.
Cage is incredible in this film. Meryl Streep is a pleasure as always. Chris Cooper makes a great Florida Man, feral but irresistible. Adaptation breaks the rules of contemporary Hollywood. It experiments with narrative styles and nested stories. It's clever, but not remarkably so. Adaptation is adequately ambitious and executed to satisfaction.
1. Raising Arizona
2. Leaving Las Vegas
3. Adaptation
4. City of Angels
5. Gone in 60 Seconds
6. Matchstick Men
7. Honeymoon in Vegas
8. The Family Man
9. The Weather Man
10. The Croods
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