Adaptation

Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman’s follow-up to the all-conquering, head-spinning Being John Malkovich doesn’t quite have the offbeat magic of its deeply demented predecessor, but more than holds its own in the curiosity stakes.

Determinedly baffling, and definitely not a film intended to be consumed fully on one viewing, Adaptation’s arcane premise runs thus: Charlie Kaufman (the screenwriter himself, we presume), played by Nicolas Cage, is stricken with writer’s block while working on a screenplay based on journalist Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book, The Orchid Thief . All the while, Charlie (profoundly nervy and neurotic) is deeply distracted by his high-spirited twin brother Donald (played also by Cage, to highly disorienting effect) who takes to attending screenwriting classes. Concurrently, the aforementioned Orlean (Meryl Streep) embarks on a relationship with sharp-fanged, hobo-type southern-drifter weirdo John Laroche (Chris Cooper).

Primarily down to an uncomfortably slow and sedate pace, Adaptation is never for one moment as buzzy, hypnotic or intriguing as Malkovich, with the Streep/Cooper coupling about as interesting as insects mating, and the entire project frequently stumbling upon the assumption that the audience is genuinely ‘in’ on every imponderable. Which, no doubt, is the precise intention: Jonze/Kaufman are without doubt one of the most original film-making teams of all time, and even at its most maddeningly obtuse, Adaptation simply begs to be seen.