Adaptation
Directed by Spike Jonze, this stars Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter hired to adapt "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep). Yet, he can't come up with any ideas as to how the movie version of the book will be. It's just a long book where nothing really happens. Charlie's brother, Donald, complicates things by constantly bothering him about his own screenplay he's writing. Every once in a while, the movie shifts to the events of The Orchid Thief, where Susan is researching about John Laroche (Chris Cooper), the main character who does anything and everything to steal orchids, the one thing he loves so dearly. So, as Charlie's struggle continues, he decides to meet and follow Susan, leading to the spark that leads to a finished script, but at a price.

Adaptation is partially a true story with Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze teaming up to adapt "The Orchid Thief" after their critically-acclaimed hit Being John Malkovich. Donald is an imaginary character, but received a screenwriting credit for the film.

This borderline drama/dark comedy was captivating for the first half hour as we heard the voices inside Charlie debating what to do about his screenplay while developing the relationship between Susan and John. The scenes with Donald are fun to watch as an obvious novice attends one screenwriting seminar which leads to a script being shopped around. But this one note was being played throughout the movie and eventually wore itself out. The constant self-referencing had my head spinning and sometimes made me lost. It didn't last long as the twist to bring together the two separate storylines was a brilliant plot device. It's interesting to note that the finished product Charlie creates is exactly what he wanted to avoid writing in the beginning of the film. Overall, this movie about the difficulty of writing a movie was funny and interesting to watch. Cooper and Streep turn in excellent supporting performances but Cage's lead role will probably get lost in a year filled with strong lead performances. 3 stars