During production of Being
John Malkovich, overanxious screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage)
begins his latest undertaking, a big screen adaptation of Susan Orlean’s (Meryl
Streep) decidedly small scale and narratively bereft The Orchid Thief ostensibly
about a magnetic Florida flower poacher (Chris Cooper), which blocks his
creative process and becomes a major source of consternation. Meanwhile, his
twin brother Donald (also Cage), a novice writer, tries his hand at the trade
and effortlessly produces a moronic and completely bankable thriller. Kaufman’s
Spike Jonze directed Adaptation. is a
brilliant self-conscious examination, self-referential a hundred times over,
that manages to be warm, surrealistic, cynical, funny, and sad all at once.
Cage gives the finest performance of his career in creating two distinct,
humanized characters and Streep, especially Cooper, and Bryan Cox in a key walk
on role are all tremendous.