Rating: 
Summary: Having the Cake & Eating It Too
Review: ADAPTATION is a hilarious movie. If you've every taken a writing class, are a creative writer, watch tons of movies, or know about the film industry it is just too much fun.
Nicholas Cage plays two characters in the film in real tour de force performance. He actually seems like two people. He plays Charlie Kaufman, who must adapt a book by Susan Orleans to the screen and he plays Donald Kaufman, the twin brother that has the most clichéd ideas about film scripting. And yet, and yet, Donald's "original" script is accepted, while Charlie is still trying to get a bead on The Orchid Thief and its author.
The movie takes a melodramatic adventure turn and I was rolling on the floor at how the real Charlie Kaufman managed to have his cake and eat it too. The film's conceit and concept is so tongue-in-cheek, we the viewing audience have no idea what is suppose to be real or not real. Film isn't real anyways, and yet we contemplate what is real in the film. It's so convoluted, it make the head spin.
This movie plays with our heads. It makes us laugh and think at the same time. What is the nature of reality? What is the nature of film? As an audience didn't we like that melodramatic part? What is the writing process really like? Don't writers have as split personality, one that thinks too hard and fails to act, and one that doesn't think at all, but embraces the surface all too easily?
This movie is too fun and must be experienced to be appreciated to its fullest. No review can tell you about it.
Rating:
Summary: Adapting the unadaptable....
Review: If cleverness were the only criteria, Adaptation would take-the-cake hands down for its convoluted structure and narrative, and the shrewd choices made by writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze allowing the story-within-a-story to intercut and overlap itself amid fast and funny flash-backs. But there is much more, including a marvelous turn by Nicolas Cage as Kaufman and his twin brother Donald, Meryl Streep (always wonderful), and the Oscar winning (and deserving) performance by Chris Cooper.Kaufman takes the inhumanly daunting task of adapting a basically unfilmable book, The Orchid Thief, as the starting point to both examine and satirize the writing and movie-making experience. Within this conceit, he manages to put up a great deal of the story of the writer Susan Orlean's (Streep) relationship with her great central character John LaRoche (Cooper), the Orchid Thief, while making sharply observed side digressions concerning Kaufman's self-loathing, frustrations with writing, and not only his disgust with the dumbed-down expectations of Hollywood but the demoralizing success of those who cater to those low expectations. Full of keen cameos by Tilda Swinton and Brian Cox among others, the story goes wildly off the tracks in a last act fantasy that is a jarringly different movie. And that's the whole point, summed up nicely, isn't it? Following on the heels of their Being John Malkovich, Kaufman and Jonze have created another completely unique motion picture the likes of which you've never seen before. Keep at it boys, some of us are watching.
Rating:
Summary: Nicolas Cage is brilliant
Review: I had mixed feeling about this movie but as it progressed, I realized that it was brilliant. Nicolas Cage gives a wonderful performance in this emotional movie about a screen writer searching for himself as he writes a script that ends up being about himself. Merrill Street gives an outstanding performance in her supporting role. I would recomend this movie to anyone looking to see an emotional film that give off many different moods.
Rating:
Summary: The Ending is Not An Accident
Review: Allow me to make my voice heard: this was my favorite movie of 2002, and the writing was stellar. It plays masterfully on all of the Hollywood formulas, principles, or whatever one might call them, that are peddled at levels from 3-day seminar to University programs in screenwriting, and is always aware of the ways in which it is doing so.
The reason that many get lost at some point along the way and sdeem the movie "confusing" or say that it "changed tone" is that the writer, Charlie Kaufman, never feels the need to wink to his audience. He has said in interviews that he never worries about whether anyone's going to be able to follow along with him, and he writes what would interest him. In my eyes, this is a sign of respect for the audience, where others see pretension.
The way in which this movie, which is about its own creation, blends fantasy and reality, is truly engrossing and original. Kaufman and Jonze have experience with turning real-life personalities into fictional characters from "Being John Malkovich," but this goes several steps further, and truly abuses the trust of the audience in some of the most wonderful ways imaginable.
Put your thinking caps and your fun pants on when you sit down to watch this movie, and enjoy the ride.
Rating: 
Summary: Cage, Streep, and Cooper
Review: I saw this film because I was so impressed with Chris Cooper's wonderful performance in "Seabiscuit." He is good here as well, but the movie itself....well, it's just not for me. "Adaptation" stars Nicolas Cage as twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman. Neurotic Charlie's job is to adapt the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan (Meryl Streep) Orlean for the screen. He apparently has a very loose grasp of reality to start with, and, faced with monumental frustration, begins to put himself into the screenplay, and has the real characters doing fictitious things, including attempted murder (of him!) Toothless Chris Cooper plays John, the eccentric orchid hunter, who combs Florida's swamps for the elusive "moth" orchid and who, in Charlie's mind, falls in love with Susan. It was never clear to me what was real and what was a figment of Charlie's mind. Even the existence of brother Donald is questionable at times. The film's story (it couldn't be called a "plot") is completely surrealistic. Add to this the fact that Charlie and Donald Kaufman actually wrote the screenplay for "Adaptation," and that Susan Orlean really wrote a book called "The Orchid Thief" about a real man named John, and I was left confused and repelled by the characters and their actions. It is impossible to know what is real and what is fantasy, and none of the characters (especially the protagonist, Charlie) mattered to me. Nicolas Cage is just okay as the brothers; he was repulsive and unbelievable. Streep is always flawless, but this script has her playing an unsympathetic, unlikeable woman I didn't care about at all. Oscar winner Chris Cooper, the reason I watched the film, showed great range as an actor, and certainly deserves points for losing several teeth for this part. His character was slightly sympathetic but mostly disgusting. I recommend this film to those who like off-beat, avant-guard film-making; there is nothing traditional or familiar here. It was not to my liking, but I'm sure there are many who would enjoy this energetic romp into chaos.
Rating:
Summary: A twisted triumph!
Review: "Adaptation" is not a film for viewers who gravitate toward conventional movies. Charlie Kaufman (Nicholos Cage) is a sweating, overweight screenwriter prone to voice-overs and fantasy. Given the coveted job of writing an adaptation of Susan Orlean's THE ORCHID THIEF, he struggles mightily with his art and the downturn of his personal life, which is also desperately in need of adaptation. When his twin brother Donald (also Cage), the archetypical mooch, decides on a whim that he, too, will become a screenwriter, Charlie is pushed to the edge. The movie begins to twist on itself, showing scenes from the story of "The Orchid Thief", Charlie's struggle with it, and, most comically, Charlie and Donald's head-banging exchanges about writing screenplays. It soon becomes evident that we are watching the finished screenplay of Charlie's (and Donald's) adaptations, with all its quirks and dramatic license. Cage makes the real screenwriter Charlie Kaufman hilariously pathetic, and argues with his wide-eyed (and thinner) alter ego with equally comedic success. Meryl Streep is great in the role of Susan Orlean, especially as she takes her character from Charlie's to Donald's genre. Chris Cooper is incredible as LaRoche, the charming but strange orchid thief himself; I had to keep reminding myself that he was an actor and not the real-life Laroche himself. Viewers who enjoy the type of weird ride that the screenwriter/director combo of Kaufman and Jonze ("Being John Malkovich") provide will find it hilariously clever; others will be left shaking their heads. If you like films by the Coen brothers such as "Fargo" and "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", you'll probably appreciate the humor and ambition of this film.
Rating:
Summary: Suffering is inevitable, misery is optional
Review: It's about the closest thing a two hour movie can come to being profound. We each view a movie through our own perceptions, understandings, intelligence and experience. No two people see the same exact thing in the same exact way. Many people came away from Adaptation and felt nothing or dislike and those are legitimate reactions. It's arrogant to say a person doesn't understand something you like just because they don't care for it. What I get out of Adaptation is an understanding about personal growth. Charlie Kaufman (Cage)is the main character. His brother, an identical twin, is an alter ego of Charlie. Susan Orleans (Streep) is a lonely unhappy woman who is afraid to let the unfulfilling parts of her life go. John Laroche (Cooper) is an essentially decent but profoundly disturbed man who reinvents himself with every new interest but deliberately fails to learn from his former selves. In order to change and grow and become the people we want to become, we have to let a part of ourselves go but learn from that part. Kaufman's road is a sad, difficult, tragic, ironic road and he is better off for having traveled it. To me, the movie is about the tragic possibilities of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Clever Script & Superb Acting - Yet A Depressing Film
Review: In ADAPTATION, the director Spike Jonze and screnwriter Charlie Kaufman have collaborated again (think BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) on another clever, brilliant, and totally weird artistic endeavor. Charlie Kaufman (who writes himself into the film as a screenwriter) is played by Nicholas Cage, as is his twin brother Donald. Charlie is hired to adapt the book THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean into a screenplay. However, the assignment stymies Charlie since the book has little plot or action and is mostly about flowers and the character development of John Laroche, an orchid poacher and character who serves as Orlean's introduction to the illicit orchid trade and is constantly in pursuit of his passion/scheme of the moment. Concomitantly, Donald is attempting to write a commercially successful screenplay of the action/adventure/mystery genre with a really strange twist. The movie shifts between the frustration of Charlie over his writer's block and inability to produce a workable story line for his script (while Donald is proceeding apace with his project based partially on Charlie's suggestions) and the relationship of the writer Orlean (Meryl Streep) and Laroche three years earlier while he was a resource for her research as an author. All the character development is amazing well done; if not for the excellent job done by Streep and the fact that Cage manages to succesfully play both his characters in a totally believable and complementary way, Chris Cooper would [use] the movie as Laroche. Even in minor roles Tilda Swinton as Charlie's producer and Brian Cox as a screenwriting teacher excel in their performances and add depth to the movie. Nevertheless, while I admired the concept, was intrigued by it's execution, and laughed out loud at some of the humor, overall I did not greatly enjoy the story and definitely have no desire to see it again. So, if you like really great performances and unique films, this will undoubtedly qualify as five star. Otherwise, despite the surprise twists which the film at times takes, you may conclude as I did that it is perhaps slightly long (due to the complicated nature of the filmplay) and perhaps increasingly depressing in its latter stages (where it departs from the book as it attempts to develop the plot which the book lacks). It definitely does not have the broadbased appeal to be a major box office success although it will undoubtedly develop a loyal cult following of admirers. Last, I have not gone into greater detail in order not to spoil the story development for potential moviegoers and because there have been several good reviews already posted.
Rating:
Summary: A simple desire wrapped in complexity
Review: I have watched this movie many many times and I never get bored with it. It is truly one of the most original movies of the past ten years. Try to explain the plot to people and you will no doubt confuse them, but it all makes sense when watching the movie. Let me try to explain the plot:
Charlie Kaufmann (an actual person in real life) is portrayed in this movie by Nicholas Cage. Kaufmann is trying to adapt the book "the orchid thief" (which is an actual book in real life) into a movie. His twin brother Donald (who is not real, although he was credited with having helped write the screenplay) is writing a movie of his own called "the 3." Charlie and Donald have two different styles of writing. The first half of Adaptation is the kind of movie Charlie wants to make "The Orchid Thief" into, but when he can't write the screenplay he enlists the aid of his brother. From here until the end of Adaptation we get a taste of what Donalds movies are like.
A little complicated to talk about, but watch it and you'll get it.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood: Home of the Sad, Sick and Depressed
Review: Nicolas Cage's performance (in a double role as twin brothers) can convince anyone that a life as an artist in Hollywood is one of loneliness and psychosis. Success as a writer comes at the cost of fear to fail. Meryl Streep (in yet another tailor-made role) adds her own flavor of "Silkwood-like" depression to the picture. Cleverly intertwining story/plot keep you interested, especially the unexpected portions of (graphic) violence and terror. Sex, drugs and simultaneous refusal to accept responsibility for one's own actions eventually turn to repulsion. You lose empathy for the lead characters, who are hopelessly lost on a path of self-destruction. The innocense of beautiful orchids (the focal point of the story) is quickly put aside by the fast-paced story with its surprise shockers. THIS won all of the Oscar Nomination? Great acting, yes. Excellent script, ok. Enertainment? No way! This was a one-time-view for me, and I recomment this film only to die hard fans of the actors, presuming they have a strong stomach for extreme violence. The stuff that nightmares are made of!**
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