neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Adaptation
	Spike Jonze Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brian Cox, Catherine Keener, John Cusack 2002		Charlie Kaufman can lay claim to writing one of the most original, whimsical films ever made, "Being John Malkovich." Now, he's topped himself with the clever, outrageously funny script for "Adaptation," his second collaboration with "Being John Malkovich" director Spike Jonze. In "Adaptation," Hollywood scribe Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt the unorthodox nonfiction best-seller, "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean, for the screen. But anxious Charlie, played by Nicolas Cage, suffers a crippling case of writer's block and can't figure out how to turn the book into a filmable screenplay. Compounding his misery, his twin brother Donald, a self-indulgent goofball, decides to become a screenwriter and swiftly finds success. As Charlie takes refuge in fantasy, his script for "The Orchid Thief" turns more and more demented, and real life and art begin to blur together. This is a brilliant, playful movie about the impetus and agony of creation with dazzling performances by Cage as the twins, Meryl Streep as Orlean and Chris Cooper as the orchid expert who inspired Orlean's book. Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Brian Cox co-star.