MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

The creative team behind Being John Malkovich -- director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman -- return with this equally offbeat comedy, in which Kaufman himself becomes the leading character. Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is a gifted but profoundly neurotic screenwriter who, after the success of Being John Malkovich, has been hired to write a script adapted from the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. But while Charlie is obsessive about his work, he's also intensely paranoid, given to deep depression, socially inept, and terrified of talking to women, qualities which are making it difficult to get on with his work or hold on to his tenuous relationship with girlfriend Amelia (Cara Seymour). Meanwhile, Charlie's identical twin brother, Donald Kaufman (also played by Cage), has shown up to move in with his brother. Emotionally, Donald is Charlie's polar opposite -- a loudmouthed, over-confident, superficial party animal who has an easy way with the ladies. Donald has decided to follow his brother's footsteps and take up screenwriting as well, but embracing the dictates of screenwriting tutor Robert McKee (Brian Cox), he's cranking out a cliché-ridden serial-killer thriller when not busy making time with new girlfriend Caroline (Maggie Gyllenhaal). As Donald blazes through his screenplay, Charlie slowly picks away at his story, in which author Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) chronicles John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a scruffy but devoted plant enthusiast who tries to save rare species of orchids by stealing them from their natural home in the swamps of Florida. As John and Susan become better acquainted, they find themselves attracted to one another; similarly, Charlie finds himself increasingly fascinated with Susan, and finds himself falling in love with her, even though he's only seen her photo on the dust jacket of her book. Charlie arranges to meet Susan, but is too nervous to confront her face to face, so he sends Donald (who has just scored a seven-figure deal for his script) in his place, while he attends a screenwriting seminar held by McKee. Adaptation also features Tilda Swinton, Judy Greer, and Stephen Tobolowsky. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, Dolby Digital Surround
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: English, French
• Features:
  • • Digitally mastered audio & anamorphic video
    • Mastered in high definition
    • Widescreen presentation
    • Audio: English DTS, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2-channel Dolby Surround, French 5.1 Dolby Digital
    • Subtitles: English, French
    • Cast & filmmaker filmographies
    • Trailer
    • Animated menus
    • Scene selections

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 2002 (Nicolas Cage)
•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 2002 (Meryl Streep)

• American Film Institute

•     Won Top Ten Movie of the Year - 2002

• Berlin International Film Festival

•     Won Silver Bear - 2003

• Broadcast Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Screenplay - 2003 (Charlie Kaufman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2003 (Chris Cooper)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2003
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 2003 (Meryl Streep)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2002
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 2002 (Meryl Streep)
•     Nominated Best Writer - 2002 (Charlie Kaufman)

• Chicago Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 2002 (Meryl Streep)
•     Won Most Promising Performer - 2002 (Maggie Gyllenhaal)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 2002 (Chris Cooper)
•     Won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 2002 (Meryl Streep)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2002 (Spike Jonze)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comed - 2002 (Nicolas Cage)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Musical or Comedy - 2002
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Screenplay (Runner-up) - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Screenplay - 2002 (Charlie Kaufman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2002

• National Society of Film Critics

•     Won Best Supporting Actor (Runner-up) - 2002 (Chris Cooper)

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)

• Screen Actors Guild

•     Nominated Best Actor - 2002 (Nicolas Cage)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)

• Toronto Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Actor - 2002 (Nicolas Cage)
•     Won Best Picture - 2002
•     Won Best Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2002 (Chris Cooper)

• Writers Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2002 (Donald Kaufman, Charlie Kaufman)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Spike Jonze

• Producer:

  Jonathan Demme, Edward Saxon, Vincent Landay

• Screenwriter:

  Charlie Kaufman

• Book Author:

  Susan Orlean

• Screenwriter:

  Donald Kaufman

• Cinematographer:

  Lance Acord

• Composer (Music Score):

  Carter Burwell

• Editor:

  Eric Zumbrunnen

• Production Designer:

  KK Barrett

• Art Director:

  Peter Andrus

• Executive Producer:

  Peter Saraf, Charlie Kaufman

• Set Designer:

  Gene Serdena

• Costume Designer:

  Ann Roth, Casey Storm

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Drew Kunin, Richard Beggs

• Special Effects:

  Gray Matter FX

• First Assistant Director:

  Thomas Patrick Smith

• Casting:

  Justine Baddeley, Kimbery Davis-Wagner

• Second Unit Director:

  Dan Bradley

• Supervising Sound Editor:

  Michael Kirchberger

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Gray Marshall

• Additional Cinematography:

  James Fealy

REVIEW:

• Critics charged with the divine headache of describing Adaptation, in all its twisted magnificence, should find it appropriate that the story concentrates on the paralysis of writer's block, brought on by the impossible urge to say everything. The sophomore collaboration between screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze is so drenched with unorthodox ideas, yet so fundamentally accessible, that it actually outdoes the groundbreaking Being John Malkovich in existential pretzel logic, while remaining digestible to a middle-brow audience. Kaufman's real-life struggles adapting Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief get brilliantly expanded into a self-reflexive narrative of sublime originality, in which screenwriter, author, and muse become intertwined, and such rich topics as artistic integrity, social awkwardness, and sibling rivalry get teased and prodded. Not only has Kaufman written himself into the proceedings, but in Nicolas Cage, he's found an exquisite choice to interpret himself and his twin brother -- an imaginary character given "real" life by receiving a screenwriting credit. Sweating, stammering, lowering his eyes, and imploding in a crisis of relevance -- then doing just the opposite as Donald -- Cage kicks his own career out of neutral, at least briefly exchanging the hunt for ever-bigger paychecks with work that truly matters. Although the stories of Orlean (Meryl Streep) and John Laroche (Chris Cooper) both carry a vital urgency, this is Kaufman's film, full of the anxieties of a kinky-haired shlub whose overactive imagination is both his meal ticket and his curse. Inasmuch as it eventually imitates the very story structure it abhors, Adaptation is the rare film that both attacks and revels in the humbling, soul-crushing yet exhilarating mechanics of Hollywood moviemaking. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi