I wanted to see a film about a writer and I experienced a story in contrasts. There was the contrast between the neurotic personality of Charlie Kaufman trying to write a good screenplay and the personality of his twin and alter ego, Donald Kaufman who sells out for money. This contrast was dramatized in the difference between the first and last halves of the plot, i.e. the storyline was a schizophrenic metaphor.

There was also a contrast between the acting ability of Meryl Streep, who is one of my favorites, Chris Cooper, who received a supporting actor Oscar for the role and Nicholas Cage. Cage does a fair job with both of his roles, but Streep and Cooper outclass him. It is one of the problems with the film.

The other problem with the film was the amount of time allocated for the Charlie Kaufman character to wallow in self-involvement and self-pity. I felt the story had much more of this than was necessary to define the character and move the plot. However, it is hard to tell whether to fault the screenwriter or the director.

Some of this self-involvement was built into the plot, since it is a story by a screenwriter about himself writing a screenplay about the story he is writing. This has the bizarre affect of using clips of the final screenplay dramatization to relate aspects of the novel that Kaufman is using as the basis for the film.

Another quirk is the fact that there is a real Susan Orleans who has published a real book, The Orchid Thief (2000) about John Laroche who is a real person. Furthermore, John Malkovich, Catherine Keener, John Cusack, Spike Jonze (the director) and Lance Acord (cameraman) all play themselves. Even Susan Orleans originally had a part as an extra, but the scene was deleted. The number of real people using their own names leads me to believe there was some influence from realitytelevision programming.

Cage is well known, which probably explains why he was chosen for the role. His most recent films have been Captain Corellis Mandolin (2001, received $7M) and Windtalkers (2002, received $20M). He received $2M for his roles in Adaptation (2002). Cage is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola. His father taught comparative literature and was dean of Creative Arts at SF State. His mother was a dancer choreographer. Cage lives in a fake castle near Los Angeles and drives a Lamborghini once owned by the Shah of Iran. He proposed to Patricia Arquette the day he met her. They eventually married, and divorced. He later married and is divorcing Elvis Presleys daughter, Lisa.

Streep made her film debut in Julia (1977) and has since been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times and won twice. She has been in many terrific films. Streep, in her 50s, has been married to the same person for 25 years and has four children.

Chris Coopers 15-year career has included the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), A Time to Kill (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), October Sky (1999) and I also remembered his performance as Colonel Fitts in American Beauty (1999).

Cara Seymour played Amelia, Kaufmans love interest. Her recent films have been Youve Got Mail (1998), American Psycho (2000) and Gangs of New York (2002).

Susan Orlean is a staff writer for the New Yorker and her most recent book is The Bullfighter Checks her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People (2002). This and The Orchid Thief (2000) are available on Amazon.com.

Overall, the film was different and less than my expectations. It was a little too whacky, like the music of Spike Jones, the 1940s bandleader who produced whacky sound effects in his music. He was a possible namesake of the films director, Spike Jonze.

On February 11, 2003, "Donald Kaufman" was nominated for a real-life Academy Award, along with the real Charlie Kaufman, for the screenplay of Adaptation (2002). This is the first time in Oscar history that a nomination has been bestowed upon a fictional character.

Reviewed May 25, 2003