Adaptation

I knew Adaptation was going to be a weird movie from the get-go, but I had been interested in watching it for a really long time, and I finally got to see it. As it turned out, it was more slow-paced than weird, and even though it was interesting, I won't rush to recommend it to anyone.

Adaptation tells the story of Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage with, goes without saying, funky hair), a scriptwriter who is trying to adapt a novel called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean for the big screen. The problem is that nothing really happens in the book, but he wants to respect the source material without adding anything to it (like a story, for instance), and thus he finds himself unable to write the script. The movie alternates scenes in which he struggles to write the script with flashbacks in which the novel's author (Meryl Streep) is doing research to write her book. At some point, both storylines converge, and then stuff happens.
Sounds interesting? Well, it sort of is, but the most interesting thing is that Adaptation is actually written by the real Charlie Kaufman, and it is supposed to be based on The Orchid Thief. Instead, it is based on Kaufman's difficulties with adapting the book, so the writer ended up writing a movie about how hard it was for him to write a movie. To make the line between reality and fiction even more blurry, the move credits Charlie and his twin brother Donald Kaufman as the writers of the movie, and even though Donald (also played by Cage) is an important part of the movie, he doesn't actually exist. Even better: according to IMDB, both Charlie and Donald were nominated for the Golden Globe for their script, even though Donald is a fictional character.

Has your brain exploded already? If you're still reading this, I guess you not only survived, but also understand why I was interested in watching this movie. Unfortunately, it sounds more entertaining than it is, but I think my dear Halagan might find this movie quite interesting if he hasn't seen it already. As for anyone else who is not interested in screenwriting or turning books into movies, I'd say give this movie a pass, because I doubt you'll enjoy it.