Adaptation (Superbit, 2002)
Film:
DVD:

Written by Charlie & Donald Kaufman, based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton

Features:

• Cast & filmmaker filmographies
  
• Theatrical trailer
  

Released by: Columbia-Tristar.
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Rent it.

Charlie Kaufman (Cage) has a bit of a problem. Following the success of his last project, Being John Malkovich, he's been signed on to adapt Susan Orlean's (Streep) book, The Orchard Thief, into a film. It concerns the tale of one John Laroche (Cooper), and his obsession with orchids--a drive that will take him time and time again into swamps seeking incredibly rare flowers, and then stealing them one eye towards loopholes in the law. Although Thief appears to be an intriguing book, it doesn't have dick going for it when it comes to cinematic flavor. Charlie is increasingly panicked about what to do with this supposedly unadaptable book--and to make matters worse, his twin brother Donald (also Cage) has ended his long spree of uselessness and decides to become a screenwriter as well.

Unfortunately, this is an unworthy followup to Malkovich, being a well-acted experiment in boredom. While it seems to want to say something about reality and Hollywood and people and, well, all the things that Charlie discusses at length in the trailer--it instead tells us a bunch of things anyone with any sense already knows: Hollywood wins. They will screw up anything and have the balls to decide that the story of Moses isn't action-packed enough, that the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't engaging enough and that, most heinously, people's lives just aren't interesting enough. Open up as many cans of Deep Thinking you want, I've just outlined the gist of the film. Any you know what? It just isn't enough.

While Cage delivers a remarkably solid performance as the Brothers Kaufman and Cooper brings whacko to a new level, I found myself wondering what in the world could have possibly attracted Streep to this script. Cox thunders onto the screen in what I believe was his fifteenth film appearance in 2002. So the cast is nice and solid but it's nothing to write home about in the ideas department. A terrible crime.

It's also a very odd choice for the Superbit line, especially considering this is all you get. Superbit, of course, is where all the other goodies are stripped away in favor of high quality audio and video. And apart from some of the most realisitcally wince-worthy auto accidents on film in the last ten years (now delivered in extreme nerve-destroying clarity), I'm not quite sure what this treatment of the film buys you--other than the film, I mean, since the Superbit version is the only one out at present. The menus are all nicely created, but that's about all you get--apart from the trailer, which promised a more fascinating film than the one I received.

I'm sure we'll probably get another version of this in a year or so, so unless you're a die-hard of the parties involved here, there's no real reason to snatch it up yet. As it stands, if you missed it in cinemas, it's worth a rental just to see what you didn't miss.