Overall Rating
  Awesome: 66.39%
Worth A Look: 18.85%
Just Average: 6.56%
Pretty Crappy: 4.92%
Sucks: 3.28%
7 reviews, 80 user ratings
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| Adaptation |
by Chris Parry
"If originality be the fuel of thought, write on, Charlie Kaufman."
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Adaptation is a tough flick to review. Kangaroo Jack - easy. Maid In Manhattan - a cinch. Adaptation - not so much. Charlie Kaufman's follow-up to Being John Malkovich and Human Nature is every bit as odd, original, non-commercial and thought-provoking as his earlier works, with the added twist of having brought himself and an imaginary twin brother in as new characters in the adaptation of someone else's book. And trust me, if you thought that sentence was tough to read, imagine how tough it was to write.Charlie Kaufman (the character) has a problem. Well, he has many problems. In fact, he's pretty fucked up. He totally reminds me of my ex-business partner, a fool so dripping in stress and self-loathing that he couldn't sit for ten seconds without itching at a patch of psoriasis, obsessing over his rapidly thinning hair and thickening waistline, and telling anyone who listen that he's a talentless boob. And since he still owes me a few grand, I don't mind telling you that he was right about that 'talentless' bit.
Charlie Kaufman on the other hand is far from talentless. When he's writing what he likes, he's as witty and new and twisted as anyone can be. But when the job in front of him is to adapt a novel that is the polar opposite of his writing style, problems ensue. How do you take a long, sprawling story about feelings where nobody really has any change or threat or adventure and turn it into a feature film people will pay to see?
The problems with Adaptation, and they're admittedly only small problems, are that the troubles Kaufman feels on the screen are also felt in reality. When he confesses as the Kaufman character that putting himself into the story is self indulgent, as the Kaufman screenwriter... he's right. When he groans about his lack of a big ending, I'm down with that - the ending is a letdown.
But to say those are reasons to take away from this film would be to completely neglect how funny, enjoyable, thought provoking and real this film plays out. Kaufman's desperation as a writer is the most realistic depiction of the writer's world since, oh, I dunno, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?
As Kaufman (and his brother), Nic Cage is flawless. Absolutely flawless. I've seldom been anything more than belligerent and insulting towards Cage over the last three or four years as he loped from awful role to terrible performance, trying to seemingly relaunch himself as an action hero. I've accused and abused this actor for selling his soul in such on-screen sewage as 8MM, Face|Off, Con-air, Gone in Sixty Seconds and The Family Man, but it's nice to know that irrespective of his ills against the movie-going public, he DOES possess acting talent. An abundance of it.
As does Meryl Streep. If you'd have told me three years ago that music video director Spike Jonze and Oscar-winning acting icon Meryl Streep would one day collaborate on a project, I think I'd have called you a dirty rotten liar. I still may, so watch yourself. But Streep's performance here as the author of the book that Kaufman is adapting is nothing short of exhilarating. Streep all but dropped off the radar for a few years after a rich vein in the mid-90's, but whether she's come back because the money is too good to pass up or because the standard of projects available has been steadily improving, Meryl couldn't be more welcome.
Opposite her for the majority of the film is Chris Cooper, who has fast become the character actor of choice for many a director since he lit up the screen so unexpectedly in American Beauty. There's no doubt Cooper has talent, but he's so convincing as a teeth-deprived swamp hick that you quickly forget who you're looking at. It's not that he's 'made up' to look like someone else, he just is someone else. He's morphed. There's no trace remaining of Chris Cooper; he now answers to the name Mr Laroche.
And it goes on - Maggie Gyllenhaal (Those Gyllenhaal's are talented kids I'll tell ya) is a breath of fresh air, Ron Livingston is unforgettable in a small role as Kaufman's agent ("I'd fuck THAT up the ass... oh wait, I already did."), and cameos by John Cusack, Catherine Keener and John Malkovich are so perfectly timed and used and tempered that you almost wish the director had betrayed his story and given them more screen time. That he resisted the urge to give Cusack a line is testimony to the artistic integrity of all involved. How many times have we seen celebrity cameos overused to the point where they take away from the story? Let's just say there are no John Travolta/Thin Red Line moments in this film.Much like as happened to Punch Drunk Love, many audiences will find reason to be disappointed with this film, or at the very least confused. They won't get why there's no big finish, they won't follow the nuances of the script and they won't know why the critics call it brilliant. That's the trade-off when you're supremely original - people don't know how to take you. I'm sure Charlie Kaufman by now has learned to deal with that and just enjoy the fact that he's created something great.
link directly to this review at http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=6436&reviewer=1
originally posted: 02/10/03 23:57:22
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USA
06-Dec-2002 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
02-Apr-2003
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