X-rating
Dutch
The Editor
e-mail Reggy!
Movie: Adaptation
Director: Spike Jonze
Actors: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
Director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman surprised every body with the unusual but wonderful movie Being John Malkovich. While Spike Jonze continued producing the Jackass series for MTV, after finishing "Malkovich" Charlie Kaufman was working hard on new screenplay. Now the guys are back with another unusual but again beautiful movie "Adaptation".
Story in a nutshell:
Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is a screenplay writer working on an adaptation of the book " The Orchid Thief" written by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep). While his twin brother Donald writes scripts with ease, Charlie is struggling with a writers block that doesn't seem to end.
Adaptation is in one way very interesting to see the process of writing an interesting screenplay, the writers among us, knows exactly what its like to suffer from a writers block. The beauty of this picture is that we see two different writing processes, one is writing a book, the second its screenplay. Charlie Kaufman (who used his own name for the lead role) brilliantly jumps back and forth between these two different time lines, making it one of the best flashback stories since Pulp Fiction. I had the same feeling with Adaptation as I did with Tarantino's masterpiece, when you realize how perfect, beautifully written and original a screenplay can be.
The beginning of the movie is really great when we go back to the set of Being John Malkovich, seeing all the actors rehearse, Spike Jonze behind the camera and suddenly being introduced by Nicolas Cage playing Charlie Kaufman. Cage is absolutely fantastic and very funny, playing the twins Charlie and Donald, each with their own totally different personalities. Mery Streep is as beautiful as ever, playing a writer searching for something that she's missing in life. Chris Cooper as the Orchid Thief John Laroche finally gets a role that fits him best, showing what a great actor this guy is.
Spike Jonze proofs that he's an unique filmaker, using the right pace and stunning visuals to tell this funny and moving story written by and starring Charlie Kaufman.
|
Movie: |
X X X X |
Written by Reggy 17/03/03
Go back to Reviews
