US
Drama
Feature film
2002

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Adatptation was probably one of the oddest movies I've seen in a while. Structurally interesting, it employed a recursive storytelling technique: I was watching a movie about a writer adapting a novel, wherein the writer wrote himself into the movie. Even the credits perpetuate this -- both Charlie and Donald Kaufman are credited, but Donald is a fictional character from the movie.

Nicholas Cage is a great actor, but his role (Charlie) was very difficult to watch. Charlie is painfully timid and insecure, questing after a screenplay that rises above the masses to achieve art. Timidity and insecurity go hand in hand with an artistic talent, but it doesn't always make for good drama. It also makes for a passive main character.

Both of those bits are, according to the gurus of screenwriting, death to screenplays. Add that to making a movie about the Hollywood biz and by all formulas this movie never would have seen a greenlight. However, due to the talents of Cage, Meryl Streep, Jonze (director) and in no small measure the screenwriter (Kaufman) it works in a bizarre way.

It's not a movie I'd run out and see over and over again, but definitely worth seeing once.