Adaptation

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * * *)

You know those come-on lines that go, "If you liked Being John Malkovich, you'll love this movie"? Well, if you liked Being John Malkovich, you will love this movie because it begins on the set of that great piece of cinema, with the screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) in despair.

He believes he's fat, balding, sweaty and talentless, and is proving this to himself by struggling with his next work in progress, which is to adapt a book called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), a writer on the New Yorker magazine, which tells the story of a passionate, obsessed flower-grower arrested for poaching rare orchids with some Seminole people.

To recap: Kaufman is a real man. He wrote the screenplay for this movie. The Orchid Thief is a real book. Susan Orlean is a real writer. The New Yorker is a real magazine. With me, so far?

Kaufman's twin brother, Donald (Cage Mk II), moves in with him and, impressed with his brother's apparent success, decides he wants to become a screenwriter, too. He goes to a course and begins to write a thriller, by the numbers. To recap again: the real Kaufman does not have a twin brother.

Cut to Orlean telling us about her struggles to write her book and her collaboration with the orchidist, John Laroche (Chris Cooper). Charlie wonders if he should meet the other writer to break his block about adapting her story for the screen.

As the two — or is it three, or four? — life stories are revealed, each of the individuals' paths will cross and each of their lives will disintegrate, in some way.

Director Spike Jonze and Kaufman create a funny, edgy parallel universe. Cage, after so many false starts, is back to his vulnerable brilliance as both brothers. Streep shows her funny side and Cooper (supporting roles in The Bourne Identity, The Patriot, Me, Myself and Irene, American Beauty, The Horse Whisperer ...) more than keeps pace with them.

"Quite demented, and quite brilliant." Didn't have writer's block over that line. Stole it.

DVD features: movie (115min); trailer; filmographies, including the fictional Donald Kaufman.