Adaptation.

A writer (Nicholas Cage) turns to his twin brother (Nicholas Cage) for assistance in adapting the story of a writer (Meryl Streep) and an orchid collector (Chris Cooper).

Adaptation is an ambitious movie with an even more ambitious script. Writer Charlie Kaufman’s examination of the process of adapting a literary work for the screen is both insightful and entertaining, and ultimately gets the last laugh.

Director Spike Jonze does an admirable job of balancing the various stories-within-stories that the script juggles, but fails to find a suitable tone for the third act. This is where the real genius of the script comes in though, because it’s almost as if Kaufman’s laughing at his own movie here by resorting to the very techniques he mocked through most of the second act. The result is a third act without any real emotional payoff but all the “standard” movie elements like car chases and character arcs. Jonze plays the material straighter than perhaps he should, but in the end it’s Kaufman who gets the last laugh.