114 Min. / Columbia Pictures
Written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman / Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper.

I hate writing that starts out with a definition. It's lazy and weak. So here's a little disclaimer so I don't feel so bad. I won't feel as bad about this piece if I have this text you're reading here. At least you can't accuse me of starting out my writing with a definition.

ab·surd·ism (b-sûrdz-m, -zûr-) n.
A philosophy, often translated into art forms, holding that humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe and that any search for order by them will bring them into direct conflict with this universe: "True absurdism is not less but more real than reality" (John Simon).

I wanted Adaptation to be like Being John Malkovich - a comedy so strange you couldn't help but laugh. It definitely wasn't that. And though it wasn't what I expected, Adaptation was filled with the sort of strange melancholy drama that I've come to love from the Being John Malkovich team. Do you want to know what Adaptation is like? Remember the last scene of Malkovich? It's like that - haunting, dramatic and a strangely humorous.

I'm not going to try and explain Adaptation's plot because the movie doesn't have a definitive plot. It's as stream of consciousness as films get, with characters on the screen actually creating the movie you're watching. Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter trying to create a follow-up to Being John Malkovich. He's balding, fat, sweaty and mumbles under his breath. He's been slated to adapt Susan Orlean's novel, The Orchid Thief. I must note that Susan Orlean is a real writer, who really wrote The Orchid Thief and the real Charlie Kaufman was once hired to adapt the book. It's confusing and it hurts my head to write about this movie.

At times Adaptation becomes that which it mocks, occasionally verging into romantic and action territories. But that's really the whole point. The film tries to examine just what it is that makes a screenwriter and how the creation process is translated to film. Everyone is great and strange in this film, from Streep's orchid snorting author to Chris Cooper's toothless, philosophical redneck.

There was always something to enjoy and think about, despite the innumerable time shifts. Sometimes the plot will jump back and forth in time. It's like Pulp Fiction if the movie was about Tarentino actually writing Pulp Fiction and Jules shot him in the face while quoting the bible. Get it? No? That's why my head hurts.

Adaptation is as much a drama as and absurdist comedy. You won't get a lot of the same laughs that you get from Something About Mary or American Pie. It's much more subtle. It's also rather "inside", with references to real screenwriting seminars and actors.

To say that this film isn't for everyone is an understatement. Some will find its cerebral musings and twists a refreshing change from the crap that normally haunts our screens. Others will find it egotistical, confusing and unnecessary. I think the truth lies somewhere in between. It probably is both great and unnecessary - and I think Charlie Kaufman wouldn't want it any other way.

Copyright 2003 Lights Out Films®