By BETH JONES
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Archives Reprint

   What kind of hallucinogens is Charlie Kaufman doing anyway?

    The 44-year-old writer received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay with "Being John Malkovich," the story of a pathetic puppeteer who finds a trippy portal into an actor's mind. He followed that film with "Human Nature," which included such characters as a woman entirely covered in hair and a human raised in the wild by an ape-man father.

    Now Charlie takes an even more outlandish route in "Adaptation" by writing himself as the lead character. Nicolas Cage plays the heavy, balding screenwriter who's desperate for human contact but so shy and frightened of the world that he has trouble making eye contact and sweats profusely when he has to attend a business luncheon.

    To make matters worse, Charlie's carefree and somewhat clueless twin brother Donald (the fictional sibling is also played by Cage) has decided to follow his brother's footsteps by taking up screenwriting himself. In no time, Donald whips out a script that's instantly scooped up by Hollywood.

    Donald's success is especially hard for Charlie to swallow because he's struggling with his own writing project: an adaptation of Susan Orlean's real-life nonfiction book, "The Orchid Thief."

    This movie, Charlie vows, won't be a love story. Nor will it have guns. This will be something new. "Nobody's ever done a movie about flowers before," he exclaims.

    To help himself get over his writing block, Charlie travels across the country to find Orlean (played by Meryl Streep) and subsequently meets the subject of her book, an unpolished but extremely smart character who hunts rare orchid specimens in the Florida swamplands (Chris Cooper).

    Out of all the strong performances, Cage stands out because he seems to have such fun playing the two brothers while avoiding getting out of control. Cage looks heavier for the role, but someone forgot to disguise those big biceps of his. I can't imagine his character would spend a lot of time in the gym.

    Director Spike Jonze - who also paired up with Kaufman on "Being John Malkovich" - is in sync with the writer's kooky vision. Both men, though, seem to lose focus near the end of the film where things get out of control with some silly action sequences.

    Earlier in the movie, a script-writing guru advises the onscreen Charlie to wow audiences with a big ending. Real-life Charlie clearly came up with the bloody finish as a way of poking fun at Hollywood formulas. Still, the scenes seem out of place in the film.

    Self-loathing onscreen Charlie is ready for the criticism. He knows the movie is self-indulgent and narcissistic. "I'm pathetic," he laments.

    That may be a little harsh

   . Despite its imperfect moments, "Adaptation" is a funny, touching romp about the creative process and about how people connect to one another.

    Let's hope this film's success will encourage the movie industry to take more chances, to value the opinions of filmmakers over focus groups.

    Maybe they'll listen when onscreen Charlie advises that screenwriters should always be trying to do something new.

    "There are no rules," he says.

    Adaptation

    HHHH

    At Valley View Grande 16. Rated R for language, sexuality, some drug use and violent images. One hour, 54 minutes.

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