Adaptation on DVD

Adaptation is a difficult movie to review. With "Being John Malkovich," Charlie Kaufman came up with the most bizarre, original, and imaginative film in years. With Adaptation, he’s come up with an equally bizarre, original, and imaginative film.

Charlie Kaufman, the character (Nicolas Cage), has been hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief. After his success with Being John Malkovich, people are counting on him to come up with something wonderfully zany and original. But adapting a book is a lot different than writing your own material, as Kaufman quickly learns.

It doesn’t help that Charlie’s twin brother, Donald (also Cage), is also in the process of writing a screenplay. But Donald’s talent isn’t the same as Charlie’s, and his seemingly ridiculous ideas are only hindering Charlie. But when Charlie has a breakthrough, he ends up doing something no screenwriter would ever do: he writes himself into his own screenplay. What follows is one of the best and most enjoyable films in recent years.

To talk more about the story would be to spoil the ride. There are such colorful characters (played by actors in top form), plenty of witty dialogue, and a story we’ve never seen before. This reviewer sat mesmerized for most of the film.

Nicolas Cage turns in what could be the best performance of his career, and his second role here is almost as good. The fact that the interaction between the two characters is so seamless only adds to the impressiveness. Meryl Streep, playing Susan Orlean, gained much acclaim for her work, but we noticed nothing extraordinary (don’t get us wrong, she does a good job, just not much different than she usually does). Chris Cooper, however, playing Orchid hunter John Laroche, deserved every bit of acclaim he received, especially his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Director Spike Jonze (Malkovich) has a unique touch that works very well for his movie choices.

To call the movie brilliant, or to use other similar words, would be misleading. That would be classifying it in the same league as other movies we call brilliant. The word Kaufman-esque is probably much more appropriate, and much more personal. Charlie Kaufman may be a genius, and he may be brilliant, but more than anything, he is Kaufman-esque.

Adaptation is one of the best movies of the year, and should be used as an example of originality. As if the performances weren’t reason enough to see it, the fact that it’s so enjoyable makes it even better. It’s a movie that should be seen by all.

Being a comedy, this would not seem an appropriate choice for the Superbit series. In fact, it’s barely advertised as a Superbit title on the box (only one little “Superbit” mark on each side), so we can only speculate that it’s considered “Superbit” so they can justify such a bare-bones release. The picture and sound are both excellent, as one would expect from a Superbit release, so we’re not going to complain too much.

Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture has rich colors and impressive detail, with nothing getting in the way. We did notice a tiny bit of glare on the characters’ skin, but that may be a result of the production. The audio is presented in both 5.1 Dolby Digital and dts, and we had doubts about how good it would be, but it’s actually quite phenomenal.

The movie opens with a voice-over by Kaufman, and it uses all the speakers together, creating a very interesting effect. Other voiceovers in the film are done the same way, as well as interactions between the Kaufmans (Kaufmen? Kaufpeople?). Most of the dialogue and sound effects come from the front channels, but it’s very nice to see a comedy make such good use of the surrounds.

For a Superbit release, this disc has a ton of extras. There are some cast & filmmaker filmographies and the theatrical trailer.

Now we can only sit back and wait for the inevitable special edition in a year or so.

Adaptation, from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
114 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) 16x9 enhanced, 5.1 Dolby Digital, dts
Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
Produced by Edward Saxon, Vincent Landay, Jonathan Demme
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman
Directed by Spike Jonze

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