Adaptation (DVD)

Generally a fan of films which don't require too much in terms of cerebral activity, I recently found myself watching a film which is completely the opposite. Adaptation, nominated for 4 Oscars and winner in the Best Supporting Actor category, caught my eye due mainly to its cast, which features one of my favourite actresses; Meryl Streep (who just gets better with age). The fact that I remembered it being mentioned at Oscar time also contributed to my desire to see it. I challenge anyone to read the synopsis on the back of the box without thinking - "that sounds like an interesting concept" - whether your response would then be to take it home or ...  Read the complete review

In 1999, director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman made Being John Malkovich, a trippy, mind-bending existential comedy that is utterly bewildering, yet also oddly enticing, and won acclaim both from the critics and audiences. In 2002, the same two men made Adaptation, a film about writer's block, with Nicolas Cage playing Charlie Kaufman himself. Kaufman, prior to writing Adaptation, tried to adapt the novel The Orchid Thief into a film, but writer's block prevented him, so he went the incredibly unconventional route of instead chronicling this struggle. The results, needless to say, are wholly unique, clever and always entertaining. Jonze and Kaufman ...  Read the complete review

So the story goes that, after completing “Miller’s Crossing”, the Coen brothers suddenly found themselves paralysed by writer’s block. What to do? Wait for inspiration to strike? Squeeze the subconscious into burping up something? Nah. Write a movie about writer’s block, stupid. Despite (or thanks to) creative incapacitation, “Barton Fink” turned out as one of the Coens’ most inventive efforts. Here’s to an enigma repeating itself, then: faced with adapting US author Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief” from page to screen, “Being John Malkovich” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman endured much angst until he was cuffed by a postmodern eureka. Why not write a movie ...  Read the complete review

Writing can be a frustrating experience at times, the dreaded writers block is something that every writer encounters. It?s just how they deal with it that counts. But how do you write a screenplay based on a book about orchids. A book that doesn?t really have much in the way of involving plot. A book that doesn?t really scream out that it?s movie material. That?s the problem that writer Charlie Kaufman (Nic Cage) encounters. Here is a man who had a good reputation, he is the man who wrote Being John Malkovich but he?s also a man who is nervous and too conscious of himself. Charlie is hired to write a screenplay for a book called ?The Orchid Thief?. The subject ...  Read the complete review

After the inspired lunacy of Being John Malkovich, which saw the lead characters sucked through a magic portal into the head of the titular actor and eventually use him as a weird puppet, it was hard to see how writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonez could get any stranger. Arguably they managed it with this film. In it Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman and his (fictional) twin brother Donald. Charlie has been commissioned to write the screenplay for an adaption of (real life) non-fiction work 'The Orchid Thief' by (real life) author Susan Orlean, here played by Meryl Streep. Struggling to adapt the book, and leave the trappings of his previous ...  Read the complete review