At the Movies - 'Adaptation'

The Associated Press

This much we know is true: Charlie Kaufman wrote the screenplay for 1999's "Being John Malkovich," about a hidden portal that allows people to enter the actor's mind.

It was heralded -- and rightly so -- for being bold and innovative, the product of a twisted, brilliant brain. The movie earned Kaufman an Academy Award nomination.

It also earned him his next assignment: a screenplay based on Susan Orlean's nonfiction book "The Orchid Thief," itself based on an article she'd written for The New Yorker about a Florida man's obsession with finding a rare, perfect flower.

This is where truth cross-pollinates with mythology.

Kaufman supposedly was so stumped by the prospect of adapting Orlean's book, that after months of frustration and procrastination, he gave up and wrote himself into the screenplay.

The result is "Adaptation," in which Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage, is so stumped by the prospect of adapting Orlean's book, that after months of frustration and procrastination, he gives up and writes himself into the screenplay.

Cage plays Charlie Kaufman and Kaufman's identical twin brother, Donald, who has no trouble writing a screenplay; he's a hack, churning out mind-numbing tripe about a serial killer. In real life, Kaufman doesn't have a twin brother, but Donald gets co-screenwriting credit.

Confused? Just wait.

"Adaptation," like "Malkovich," is directed by Spike Jonze, who shares Kaufman's sense of daring and vision. And at its most thrilling, "Adaptation" exudes the same kind of trippy fun-house exhilaration that made "Malkovich" such a joy to watch.

The movie skillfully, if self-indulgently, follows two story lines, which ultimately merge into each other: Charlie reads Susan's book and tries to figure out how to turn her story into a movie, while, three years earlier, Susan (Meryl Streep) interviews orchid breeder John Laroche (Chris Cooper) and tries to figure out how to turn his story into a book.

In a hilarious extended opening voiceover, Charlie berates himself for being "old, fat, bald, ugly, disgusting." Susan, we learn, has her own insecurities: She doesn't know how to feel passionately about anything.

But Charlie becomes fascinated by Susan in the same way Susan had been fascinated by Laroche, an eccentric for whom orchids are merely the latest obsession. The idea of adaptation has to do not only with writing, but also with adapting to the world, with finding something that changes you and makes you feel alive.

Something clearly changed within the actors off screen, as well.

This is the best work we've seen from Cage in the last 10 years, maybe the last 15 -- 1987 was especially good year for him, between "Moonstruck" and "Raising Arizona." From "8MM" to "Bringing Out the Dead" to "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," Cage has been better known lately for brooding rather than acting; here, in two very different roles, he lets himself have fun again, and his enthusiasm is contagious.

It's also the best work we've seen from Streep in a long time, possibly since "Ironweed" in 1988, which earned her one of her 12 Oscar nominations. She's not so obviously acting, she lets loose and takes chances; like Cage, she actually seems to be enjoying herself.

And Cooper could have made Laroche a stereotype, a freaky Floridian traipsing through the swamp, looking for a flower that may not even exist. Instead, he's a complete person, strangely seductive despite his stringy hair and missing teeth -- and, like the people who adapted his character from real life to page to screen, he's wonderfully alive.

But then the film falls apart in the third act, when it purposely leans on the very hackneyed scriptwriting ploys that Donald espouses and Charlie abhors.

The movie knows it's doing this, and it's supposed to be cute for knowing it's doing this. (Don't be fooled -- nothing is left to chance. The structure is so pronounced, in such a Shakespearean way, it's almost a character itself.)

But watching car chases and shootouts and climactic epiphanies doesn't become more interesting just because the actors involved are winking at the camera.

"Adaptation," a Columbia Pictures release, is rated R for language, sexuality, some drug use and violent images.

Running time: 112 minutes.

Three stars out of four.