Adaptation.

Name: Adaptation.
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: December 6, 2002
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 83
Cast: Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage

2002

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 274 Ratings

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 274 Ratings

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Adaptation

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Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) | Release Date: December 6, 2002 | R

Starring: Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage

Summary: The lives of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Cage), author Susan Orlean (Streep) and orchid poacher John Laroche (Cooper) become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the others' in this adaptation of the best-selling "The Orchid Thief." [Columbia Pictures]

Director: Spike Jonze

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Rene Rodriguez

In a larger sense, Adaptation is a movie about the simple act of enjoying life -- of really embracing it -- without constantly worrying about what others think. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

What a bewilderingly brilliant and entertaining movie this is. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

The notion of meta has never been diddled more mega than in this giddy Möbius strip of a movie, a contrivance so whizzy and clever that even when it tangles at the end, murked like swampy southwestern Florida itself, the stumble has quotation marks around it. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

There's only one proper Hollywood ending to this story. Next year, Charlie and the surreal "Donald" Kaufman (listed as co-writers in the playful credits) should win twin Oscars for best adapted screenplay. They've earned it -- really. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Adaptation, like "Being John Malkovich" before it, is far from a well-made film, even on its own flaky terms. But it's a brave, sometimes brilliant one, with a phantasmagoric ending, full of love and hope, that defeats prose description. Never was an adaptation more original.

James Berardinelli

An occasionally maddening and sometimes brilliant motion picture that varies between being insightfully sharp and insufferably self-indulgent. Regardless of whether you appreciate the movie or not, it's likely to stay with you. Read full review

Stanley Kauffmann

Virtually everything that happens in Adaptation is almost juvenile showing off - daring to make a film that is in search of a script. Read full review

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User Reviews

lukeb

May 8, 2008

A brilliant film, quite possibly my favorite film, it is beyond me why anyone can give this flick 0/10, i say they either lack the intelligence to appreciate an innovative creation or they should stick to predictable and simple flicks and avoid anything a bit different or challenging. This A brilliant film, quite possibly my favorite film, it is beyond me why anyone can give this flick 0/10, i say they either lack the intelligence to appreciate an innovative creation or they should stick to predictable and simple flicks and avoid anything a bit different or challenging. This film has it all, great acting, cage and cooper give oscar worthy performances, i'm glad cooper got best supporting actor but why cage didn't get best actor is beyond me, this is his best performance, well at least in the films i've seen him in. Spike Jonze delivers stunning cinematography with an equally engaging narrative. This film is both comic and profoundly moving at the same time. being John Malcovich is a very good film, don't get me wrong but this is better, this is superb. Also look out for the countless in jokes mocking the conventional, predictable hollywood films. Especially the scene with Swinton and cage, Michael Clayton starring Tilda Swinton is an epitome of the kind of flick cage is trying to avoid making his screenplay like.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

MovieGuys

Jun 5, 2014

Adaptation, just like my last review of Seven Psychopaths, references itself and is so ironic that it pulls it off. The movie is about a screenwriter who is having a hard time adapting a book into a movie, yet the actual screenwriter of this movie, Adaptation, wrote the movie about thisAdaptation, just like my last review of Seven Psychopaths, references itself and is so ironic that it pulls it off. The movie is about a screenwriter who is having a hard time adapting a book into a movie, yet the actual screenwriter of this movie, Adaptation, wrote the movie about this subject. Cage plays a lonely, asocial screenwriter perfectly, and yet at the same time plays his social, flirtatious twin brother: sometimes in the same scene! It takes true acting talent to do that.

Adaptation takes a banal subject- orchids- and turns it into an original piece of indie magic with a couple of unforeseen and unconventional twist near the end. It's more than a movie about a movie- it's a movie about failing to write a movie: if that makes sense.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Benkoko11

Feb 23, 2017

A work incredible philisophical scope and one of the best written films I have ever seen, Adaptation is a treatise on what it means to exist, to be alive, to love, and to create.

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

Summersausage

Jan 6, 2013

Nic Cages best movie that Charlie Kaufman comes up with on the spot. The ultimate meta-movei with the best screenplay ever written or one of the top ones.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Marakai

Sep 20, 2020

If Being John Malkovich introduced us to the creative ideas of Charlie Kaufman and took us (fictionally) into the mind of John Malkovich the actor then Adaptation takes us into the mind of Charlie Kaufman himself. Of course, this is still only fiction and much poetic and artistic license isIf Being John Malkovich introduced us to the creative ideas of Charlie Kaufman and took us (fictionally) into the mind of John Malkovich the actor then Adaptation takes us into the mind of Charlie Kaufman himself. Of course, this is still only fiction and much poetic and artistic license is taken but Kaufman turns the tables onto himself this time and the results are just as creative and enjoyable. He even creates a fictional brother in Donald Kaufman (which the Academy even nominated as a joint writer when the Best Screenplay Oscar was announced). Kaufman is simply a master at creating a story where art imitates life imitating art. It’s so cleverly done and effortlessly blurs the lines between fact and fiction such is it’s astute and clever construction. Director Spike Jonze, once again, seems to be on the same wave length of Kaufman’s ingenuity and the performances are fantastic. Chris Cooper won the Best Supporting Actor award but, in a dual role as Charlie and Donald, this is arguably the best work that Nicolas Cage has ever delivered. Another mind-bending treat from Kaufman.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

EvinC

Aug 11, 2009

The movie came in strong in the beginning and middle. But as it ended, the trick of the film just became too much a part of the film. Right when the film took the "disaster Hollywood" i understood what Kaufman was doing already. But it went on only for so long.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

SusieK.

Jan 24, 2007

I tried to like this film, but I couldn't even finish it. My best friend loved it. I reckon it depends upon your taste. I found it very boring, I couldn't sympathize or care about any of the characters, and, in trying too hard to be artsy, it ends up being irritating and too dang I tried to like this film, but I couldn't even finish it. My best friend loved it. I reckon it depends upon your taste. I found it very boring, I couldn't sympathize or care about any of the characters, and, in trying too hard to be artsy, it ends up being irritating and too dang long (I am not sure how much of it I saw, but my guess is about 2/3 to 3/4 before I got really fed up and quit watching).… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

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19	#19 Best Movie of 2002
25	#25 Most Discussed Movie of 2002
87	#87 Most Shared Movie of 2002