Adaptation: Proof of Nicolas Cage's Greatness! (2002)

This has LONG been on my list of movies I've wanted to see. I've heard a lot of great things about Adaptation, but none of it about the story or plot. Just the way I like it! It also helps that it stars Nicolas Cage, the most reviewed actor on this blog. I swear I'm not obsessed, he's just been in a lot of movies I've wanted to see. Admittedly, some of which I've wanted to see how bad he was, but for Adaptation it was the total opposite. I wanted to see this because of how good I've heard he is in it. Little did I know I'd be getting 2 for the price of 1! Want to know what I'm talking about? Well just hit that jump link!


 Alright, so what did I mean by 2 for 1? Nicolas Cage plays 2 roles in this movie, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, and his twin brother Donald Kaufman. The brilliance of his performance is clear in how drastically different and yet natural and believable both characters come across. Also the effects of the two in the scenes together were really well done. Charlie is a struggling self-depreciating writer trying to adapt a book about finding orchids in swamps into a movie. He's also highly jealous of his seemingly stupid brother who succeeds in life, love, and the very same career without even trying.  There's also a lot of really well done monologues done in the way that only Nic Cage can do. Loved it!

Charlie and Donald Kaufman

So how do I sum up the story of this movie. This could get tricky, and might be considered spoilerish (sorry). First let me mention that the screenplay for Adaptation was written by Charlie Kaufman. Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman in the film. Charlie Kaufman also wrote Being John Malkovich, who we see at the start of Adaptation, on the set filming scenes from Being John Malkovich. Are you starting to see where this is going? So basically this is the movie of the screenwriter trying to come up with the idea for the movie based on the book of which we see the movie of in the movie that he's writing in the movie... I think. This is really one of those films you have to watch to get. There's a really funny scene about halfway into the movie where Charlie Kaufman suddenly gets the inspiration to write himself into the story, even catching up to himself, and writing things he just said in the previous scene into the script. The whole thing kind started blowing my mind the further into it I got.

So basically I loved this movie all over. The characters, the acting, the story and the script are all top notch as far as I'm concerned. This is just the kind of movie I love, and it pains me that it's taken me this long to get around to seeing it. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who likes movies that aren't the norm or the standard. Brilliant piece of work!