Adaptation - 9.5/10
Adaptation is the one of the most brilliant films I have seen. This, the second Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman pairing is basically as brilliant as their first, Being John Malkovich; if possible, it is even more innovative, but they are different films. This film is about Charlie Kauffman but it's also about other things, which all emanate from his own issues. It is written by the real Charlie Kaufman, however there is a co-writing credit going to the non-existent Donald Kaufman, a creation of Charlie's for this film.
Nicholas Cage brilliantly plays twins Charlie and (the made up) Donald. Donald is obviously a part of the real Charlie, extracted and made into a separate person for this film. Donald is like the flip side to Charlie; whereas Charlie is locked in his own psyche and perfectionism to the point of madness, Donald learns to write at a screenwriting seminar from an angle of classic structure, and is open to all established ideas, something which is like the equivalent of conformity to Charlie. This is the battle which rages for the real Charlie, I presume, as he plays tug-of-war between artistic integrity and mainstream commercialism. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is a masterful play on self-reflexivity, and that the characters are twins reinforces that notion of the dualistic nature of not only the screenwriting process, but life in general. This is like a Pirandellian play in 21st century cinematic form, and Kaufman truly makes himself a formidable screenwriting figure with this film, in my opinion.
The film is about Adaptation in all of its forms; from evolutionary adaptation, to literary screenwriting adaptation, to relationship adaptation, to adapting to the changes in the surrounding modern world, adapting based on past events and memories. Adapting is a premise for all of the films ideas, really, because in the mind of Charlie Kaufman, all ideas, no matter how small (or how big we can make them) must be adapted to.
I think Adaptation is the most profound, original film in all of its complex facets. It is also one of the greatest character studies you will see, as well as a great film about the writing process. The film is so anomalous in how it is directly about multiple things, while at the same time indirectly depicting them at multiple levels, both at the level of the story and as a self-reflexive commentary on the decisions made within the story. Think about what happens to the twins at the end, and you will see how, truly, Charlie has become whole again at the films end; his adaptation of the novel is done, and so to has the fragmentation of his psyche been remedied. But that is by no means the only thing we learn at the end; the film works at various levels in its duration. This is a Masterpiece of 21st century cinema; see it, see it now, if you haven't already
