![\"adaptation-2002-11-g\"](\"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2003\/12\/adaptation-2002-11-g.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center>It\u2019s easy for directors to spoof themselves and their own movies, and it could easily come off as self-indulgent, but director Spike Johnze somehow makes it seem refreshing and truly bold. I was intrigued from the beginning as Jonze dares to be clich\u00e9 and predictable from beginning to end. Charlie Kaufman is an odd character. He\u2019s insecure, self-loathing, balding, and never knows the right thing to say to people despite the fact that many people actually like him but he manages to instantly repel them with his knack for talking too much and saying the wrong or inappropriate thing as he does with an attractive friendly waitress (Judy Greer) at a restaurant. Charlie is constantly running his head with thoughts of insecurity despite the fact that he\u2019s thought of as a genius in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Nicolas Cage plays two characters; Donald Kaufman as well, who is the exact twin of Charlie except more confident, easy-going, and friendlier. What Cage gives a stellar performance with two characters who look exactly alike but somehow are easily noticeable as separate people. Nicolas Cage is so skilled performing as these two characters its almost scary. The characters Donald and Charlie are twin brothers but somehow they represent opposite people; as where Charlie is insecure, uneasy, and awkward, Donald is somehow symbolic as Charlie\u2019s exact opposite, an entity he wishes he could be. Donald is easy going, friendly, and a good people person and is also Charlie\u2019s exact creative opposite.<\/p>\n
Where Donald is clich\u00e9, predictable, and artificial when it comes to movie ideas including one cookie cutter murder mystery, Charlie strives to be different and off-beat in his attempts as a screenwriter. There are many great scenes in which Jonze points out many clich\u00e9s in the film genre and frowns upon phrases like \u201cpitch a script\u201d. They tend to interact throughout the film presenting vastly different personalities and personas Cage handles with much flair, Meryl Streep gives a great performance is yet another symbol in the story who plays novelist Susan Orlean who is disgusted with Laroche at first but gains a fascination with John Laroche a botanist obsessed with Wild Orchids. Orlean gains an instant fascination with Laroche who manages to become a paradox within her character as well. Laroche played by Chris Cooper is great as the eccentric Laroche, symbolizing Orleans lack of passion in life.<\/p>\n
She leads a basically mundane life with her husband as a reporter for the \u201cNew Yorker\u201d, then Laroche instantly reacts to Orlean\u2019s character who he sees as the missing element to his life, the one person who understands his passion for life. Every element in the story becomes a character from the waitress in the restaurant who represents Kaufman\u2019s lack of confidence, right down to the book and screenplay which become symbols of Charlie\u2019s goals in life almost impossible to reach, an obstacle he must conquer to get to the next pinnacle of success in his life; the orchids become symbolic of women to Charlie; odd and fascinating specimen\u2019s he\u2019s only beginning to understand but may in fact never will. Jonze takes clever jabs at himself with many story elements. The film is full of voice-overs from Charlie and Susan despite the fact that a screenplay teacher (played by the always versatile but underrated Brian Cox) says during the film that voice-over\u2019s are for terrible writers who can\u2019t tell a story.<\/p>\n
Its little tidbits of self-aware satirical elements that Jonze bombard the screen with creating a truly wry product that becomes an entity onto itself, with a murder mystery motif which is something the character Charlie is strictly striving against. By the last minutes of the film he\u2019s written himself into a screenplay about someone else which causes the audience to wonder, is the movie a fabrication of the writer, or is the writer a fabrication of the movie? That said, events seem to jump back and forth between characters and their situations and it never truly states which is which except for a statement below stating \u201cThree years Later..\u201d or \u201cTwo years earlier\u2026\u201d. The film also has intentions and twists in stories that most crowds probably won\u2019t understand unless it\u2019s watched more than once. This is a truly fascinating peek into the minds of creative writers and in the end becomes its own product which the character Charlie despises. Spike Jonze creates an original, but truly innovative piece of film.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s easy for directors to spoof themselves and their own movies, and it could easily come off as self-indulgent, but director Spike Johnze somehow makes it seem refreshing and truly bold. I was intrigued from the beginning as Jonze dares to be clich\u00e9 and predictable from beginning to end. Charlie Kaufman is an odd character. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[50,111,219,302,335,472,728,967],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-a","tag-arthouse","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-experimental","tag-hollywood","tag-nicolas-cage","tag-spike-jonze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}