After the success of `Being John Malkovich' Spike Jonze has followed up with another dazzlingly surreal, utterly original and sporadically baffling picture in the form of `Adaptation.'. I guess you could call Mr. Jonze a lite alternative to David Lynch. You have to hand it to directors and scriptwriters when they take the most original approach to the simplest subject. And from an overhead view, `Adaptation.' is one long in-joke from start to finish.
The plot takes on many turns, each as original as the next. It's part satire, part dynamic comedy, part Greek tragedy, part quirky drama, part psychological thriller, all weird. What an original concept- a scriptwriter tries to adapt book entirely about flowers while experiencing writers block, being annoyed by his twin brother, and falling for the author of the book who had an affair with `The Orchid Thief' of the title.
This is all tremendously symbolised on the front cover as we see Cage's head in the form of a flowerpot crashing to the ground. Like `Being John Malkovich', this is too surreal for all tastes and is too perplex for an average audience. Some will think it's too weird and completely miss the point. It's certainly an odd cinematic experience, but there are a few laughs along the way. Mind you, many of the in-jokes about script writing and the film industry will pass over the heads of most people.
The performances are exceptional all round from a talented cast. Nicholas Cage is exemplary in a double role as neurotic, world-weary Charlie Kaufman (who ironically wrote the script) and his fictitious dim-witted twin brother Donald. From what I've seen, he deserved the Academy Award for Best Actor. Meryl Streep delivers a deliciously frothy comic turn as real life novelist Susan Orlean, though the late in the game revelations don't justify her character. Chris Cooper (who won an Oscar for his part) gives such a convincing flamboyant turn as Orchid Thief John Laroche, it's hard to believe this is the same actor who was such a stereotype in `American Beauty'. Fine support is generated from Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton and Cara Seymour.
**SPOILERS** While the first two thirds build up to, what was hinted at as, a superb final third, the conclusion lacks all logic. The fact that they turned Orlean and Laroche into `the bad guys' really is a disappointment to an otherwise excellent movie. And when they killed off Donald and Laroche, things got even worse and surprisingly bleak. However, there are rumours circulating that that was all just part of the `script' and `the movie within the movie'. I sincerely hope so **SPOILERS END**.
But the film ends on an innovative note as we see flowers blooming in the background and hear the song `Happy Together' playing. In typically idiosyncratic fashion, the lyrics `Happy Together' are repeated as the background changes and the flowers die and re-bloom, but the song never reaches the chorus. This is another symbolisation for the fact that the Jonze/ Kaufman team always end a film on a delightfully surreal note. Wickedly entertaining, glintingly innovative and shockingly audacious, `Adaptation.' is a hoot. My IMDb rating: 7.6/10.
The plot takes on many turns, each as original as the next. It's part satire, part dynamic comedy, part Greek tragedy, part quirky drama, part psychological thriller, all weird. What an original concept- a scriptwriter tries to adapt book entirely about flowers while experiencing writers block, being annoyed by his twin brother, and falling for the author of the book who had an affair with `The Orchid Thief' of the title.
This is all tremendously symbolised on the front cover as we see Cage's head in the form of a flowerpot crashing to the ground. Like `Being John Malkovich', this is too surreal for all tastes and is too perplex for an average audience. Some will think it's too weird and completely miss the point. It's certainly an odd cinematic experience, but there are a few laughs along the way. Mind you, many of the in-jokes about script writing and the film industry will pass over the heads of most people.
The performances are exceptional all round from a talented cast. Nicholas Cage is exemplary in a double role as neurotic, world-weary Charlie Kaufman (who ironically wrote the script) and his fictitious dim-witted twin brother Donald. From what I've seen, he deserved the Academy Award for Best Actor. Meryl Streep delivers a deliciously frothy comic turn as real life novelist Susan Orlean, though the late in the game revelations don't justify her character. Chris Cooper (who won an Oscar for his part) gives such a convincing flamboyant turn as Orchid Thief John Laroche, it's hard to believe this is the same actor who was such a stereotype in `American Beauty'. Fine support is generated from Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton and Cara Seymour.
**SPOILERS** While the first two thirds build up to, what was hinted at as, a superb final third, the conclusion lacks all logic. The fact that they turned Orlean and Laroche into `the bad guys' really is a disappointment to an otherwise excellent movie. And when they killed off Donald and Laroche, things got even worse and surprisingly bleak. However, there are rumours circulating that that was all just part of the `script' and `the movie within the movie'. I sincerely hope so **SPOILERS END**.
But the film ends on an innovative note as we see flowers blooming in the background and hear the song `Happy Together' playing. In typically idiosyncratic fashion, the lyrics `Happy Together' are repeated as the background changes and the flowers die and re-bloom, but the song never reaches the chorus. This is another symbolisation for the fact that the Jonze/ Kaufman team always end a film on a delightfully surreal note. Wickedly entertaining, glintingly innovative and shockingly audacious, `Adaptation.' is a hoot. My IMDb rating: 7.6/10.