ADAPTATION (R) ****

Directed by Spike Jonze. 112 minutes.

Starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ron Livingston, Brian Cox, John Cusack, and Catherine Keener. Released by Columbia Pictures.

If Adaptation were just funny, it would still be one of the year’s best films for I cannot recall the last time that I laughed so heartily and so loud during a movie, but no, the sophomore film from music video director Spike Jonze is more than just good for laughs. The film is also wickedly clever, surprisingly sweet and perceptive, bold and reckless, structurally scattershot, and incredibly intelligent. Jonze, whose feature debut was the equally brilliant and insane Being John Malkovich, has once again collaborated with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, who is also credited with writing Human Nature and the upcoming Confessions of A Dangerous Mind. The director and scribe are some sort of deranged dream team of filmmaking, perhaps the best pairing since the collaborations of Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader, but certainly the most inventive.

The story behind the film is nearly as interesting as the film itself, which eventually becomes the story behind the film if that makes any sense. Upon his success with Malkovich, Kaufman was hired to adapt Susan Orlean’s best-selling novel, The Orchid Thief into screenplay format. Several years back, Orleans, a well-respected writer for The New Yorker, stumbled upon the fascinating story of John Laroche, a man whom the word eccentric merely begins to describe. His dedication to stealing rare orchids from the swamps of Florida (his process of sidestepping the law is unbelievably funny) sparked her interest enough to write a piece on him, which eventually led to a novel. Though extremely moved by her book, Kaufman found himself at wit’s end attempting to translate Orlean’s scattered thoughts and stories into a feature film. As Charlie tries harder and harder to find a way to adapt the book, he realizes that, perhaps, the best way to tell the story of the “orchid thief” is to place himself in the story. “I’ve written myself into my screenplay,” he complains, “it’s pathetic.”

Although I have no idea about what the real Charlie Kaufman is like, the film paints a portrait of a wonderful film character. Nearing forty years old, having limited success with the film industry and nearly zero success with women, Charlie is a nervous wreck, speaking frantically to the audience in a voice-over that is so hilarious and so true that it nearly makes you cry. Constantly berating himself about his weight and his loss of hair, Kaufman is a shy and not very well-spoken man in times of necessity, especially when speaking with studio executives that are interested in his screenplays. Nicolas Cage gives one of his finest performances, certainly his best in several years as Charlie. It is the type of role that we have not seen from him possibly ever, though it does share the same vulnerability that he brings to his character in Leaving Las Vegas to an extent. Even funnier is Donald Kaufman (also Cage), Charlie’s twin brother and royal goofball. Donald is a thorn in his brother’s side in the worst of ways. For whatever reason, Donald succeeds with women where Charlie does not, though his pick up lines and conversations border on ridiculousness. His attempts at writing a hilariously stupid multiple personality psychological thriller called The 3 is quoted by Charlie’s agent to be the “best thing” he has read in a long time, much to Charlie’s dismay, while his own scripts that mostly center on real life stories where little takes place leave people dumbfounded.

As Kaufman struggles to write his screenplay for Orlean’s book, he begins to find that it might be beneficial to actually meet Orleans in order to get a sense of who she really is and make some sense out of her writing. What he stumbles upon is utterly outrageous and the last half an hour of the film in which Kaufman, his brother, Orleans, and Laroche all get tangled up in a subplot that can only be described as “life imitating art” to the most fantastical degree. As the film jumps back and forth through time from Charlie in the present to Orleans and Laroche in the past, we get a sense of what Jonze and writer Kaufman are interested in thematically. The film’s characters are all interested, in one form or another, in finding passion in their lives and throwing themselves head first into their obsessions. Ultimately, of course, these passions will lead to disappointment and the characters will need to begin to come face to face with themselves. Throughout the film, both Orleans (with her adaptation of Laroche’s life) and Kaufman (with his adaptation of Orlean’s novel) begin to not only find a way to adapt their stories into works of fiction, but also to adapt to life itself. Both characters want desperately to be able to have the ability to lose themselves in something rather than have to search for inspiration.

There are so many areas of Adaptation that are worthy of praise that it is difficult to know where to begin. The acting in the film is remarkable. Not only is Cage wonderful as Kaufman, but Streep gives one of her finest performances in some time and also proves what a terrific comedian she is, which is an area rarely explored by her before. As Laroche, Chris Cooper is outrageous and awe-inspiring, portraying a man that is equally tragic as he is ridiculous. Spike Jonze holds his place at the top of his class as a director with visual skill, wit, intelligence, and a growing maturity. Adaptation was, most likely, not an easy film to direct with its constant flash-forwards and flashbacks, outlandish story, and scattered use of historical excerpts, but Jonze pulls off a miracle. One can only hope that his collaboration with Kaufman does not end here. Simply put, Adaptation is astonishing.