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Adaptation chronicles the trials of Charlie Kaufman, a screenwriter in trouble. Kaufman has been assigned to write a big-screen adaptation of a bestselling nonfiction book about flowers—The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean. Inspired by the book, he wants to craft a beautiful, profound, and poetic screenplay. Instead, he sits and stares, stuck between a rock and a hard place. The rock is writer's block; the hard place is the movie studio, where executives ask him to spice up the script with action, violence, car chases, romance, and other clichés.

Kaufman's artistic struggle mirrors his incompetence in human relationships—especially with the opposite sex. Just as he envies other writers' artistry, he envies their intimacies as well. What looks effortless for others turns out to be well nigh impossible. He's not only struggling to adapt a book into a script; he can't adapt to the demands of the most casual conversation, much less get a good date. In the world according to Kaufman, the search for truth, beauty, and love is a maddening—probably futile—task.

The possibility of help comes to Charlie in two ways. First, his brother Donald moves in with him. Donald is a novice screenwriter who spews clichés and formulas all the way to Hollywood success. Charlie can't stand these superficial tactics. But when push comes to shove, Charlie might have to break down and embrace his brother's ways. It's all part of evolution, you see: adapting to survive in harsh conditions.

Playing these fictional twins, Nicolas Cage turns in one (two?) of his most astonishing and hilarious performances. I asked him which brother felt like a better fit for him. "On days when I was playing Donald, I was a bit more tense," he explained. "It was hard for me. I was still in a 'Charlie' corner of my head. It always seemed more difficult … to get rid of the self-critical thing and to really be relaxed, to really detach."

The second source of help for Charlie's "self-critical" psychosis arrives when Donald directs him to the tutelage of Robert McKee (Bryan Cox), a famous screenwriter and teacher. While going to McKee for help is a cliché in itself, it might give Charlie the help he so desperately needs.

Director Spike Jonze directs this strange, unpredictable, explosively funny film and fills it with moments of poignant emotion and inspired zaniness. The twists come so fast and furious it can make you dizzy. For example, the film begins on the set of Jonze's previous film: Being John Malkovich.

Or how about this: Charlie Kaufman, the main character, is a real person. In fact, he wrote Being John Malkovich—and this film. Thus, in some ways, Adaptation is a true story. The real Kaufman, unable to find a way to make The Orchid Thief into a compelling movie, made this movie about his frustrated efforts, and solved his own problem.

Thus it follows that author Susan Orlean (played here by Meryl Streep) is also a real person. Orlean wrote The Orchid Thief based on investigative reporting she published in The New Yorker. It chronicles her interviews with John Laroche (played here by Sam Cooper), a man who got in trouble because of his obsession for finding rare orchids. Orlean uses Laroche's passion as a way to raise questions: Where does passion come from? Is it important? What is wrong with people who don't have passion?

As the film gets more and more outrageous, viewers will wonder just how much the Charlie, Susan, and John of Adaptation resemble the real-life Charlie, Susan, and John. But the twists don't stop there. Don't be fooled by the credits of the film, which claim it is written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman. There is no Donald. The movie's portrayal of Charlie's relationship with his twin brother is a complete fiction. Moreover, I've met the real Charlie Kaufman, and I can attest that neither one of the movie's brothers resemble the real Charlie in personality or appearance.

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December (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46