Film 49

Adaptation (2002)

Director: Spike Jonze

Has Fentablar seen this before?: No.

Adaptation was a great deal of fun to watch. I really appreciated the script, which was carried out so well by the director and the film's players that the script maintained the level of excitement it was supposed to, making Adaptation a fun, enjoyable experience.

Though I am not a screenwriter myself, I imagine that a screenplay such as this connects well with other screenwriters. Adaptation touches on at least two ideas that must make screenwriting difficult at times: one, the struggle against using cliche Hollywood themes in order to make a screenplay marketable; two, the struggle to write a workable, interesting script out of mundane material.

The depiction of these struggles in Adaptation is what piqued my appreciation for the film. Very early on, I got the feeling that Charlie's adaptation would become about his struggles to write the adaptation and hoped that this would not be the only twist - which it wasn't. Once Charlie took on that direction, it was interesting to see how it spurred his creativity only for a while before he once again "hit a wall". The true twist comes when Charlie enlists the help of his brother to finish the script, at which point the story becomes everything Charlie didn't want it to be.

To be frank, Adaptation is a relatively simple story - it's the skill with which this story is carried out that makes viewing it so enjoyable.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Plot Effectiveness: 5/5. Not an extraordinarily complex story, but certianly one that works very well.

Cinematography/Shot Selection: 5/5. This was a key element in carrying the story out in an effective manner. An excellent job was done here.

Overall Acting: 5/5. Each of the players did a fantastic job and, in my opinion, this is Nicholas Cage's best work (at least of what I've seen).

Score/Soundtrack: 5/5. As usual, thematics is the key with this element, and the score helped a great deal in carrying out the story.

OVERALL RATING: 5/5

~Fentablar~