Adaptation (R, 2003)

common sense media says

Adult stuff only but hilarious and fresh.


parents & educators say
  • 50% say sexual content is an issue
  • 50% say language is an issue

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that the movie has very mature material, including very strong language, brief nudity, sexual references and situations (including masturbation and a porn Web site), drinking, smoking, and drug use. The movie has quasi-comic violence, but characters are injured and killed. Characters break the law, including stealing from nature preserves and making psychotropic drugs.

Violence: Violence and peril, characters hurt and killed.
Sex: Explicit sexual references and situations.
Language: Very strong language
Consumerism: Not applicable.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Drinking, smoking, and drug use

More on Adaptation

What to talk about

Talk to your kids

Families can talk about how we chose our passions - or whether they choose us. Do Laroche and Orlean envy each other? Does Charlie envy Donald? Why did Charlie the real-life screenwriter divide himself in two in the movie portrayal? Why did he take real-life characters like Susan Orlean and John Laroche and have their movie characters do things that they never did? What do you learn from Laroche's reason for not fixing his teeth? If you were going to re-create yourself as a movie character, what would you write? This movie both uses and makes fun of many movie conventions - which ones did you spot?

What's the story?

What's the story?

Hired to adapt Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief for the screen, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) struggles with the project. His self-doubt, underscored by the contrast with his confident identical twin brother Donald (also played by Cage), becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle. The film also depicts the process that Orlean (Meryl Streep) goes through as she tries to write about John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a man utterly obsessed with rare orchids. Orlean gradually realizes that she's not just writing about Laroche or about orchids but about the nature of obsession itself. In a way, she becomes obsessed with obsession. Meanwhile, while Donald casually dashes off a ludicrous screenplay about a serial killer with multiple personalities, utterly unconcerned about issues like consistency, Charlie agonizes about the imperviousness of Orlean's book.

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 

Like real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's other films (Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Adaptation has moments of bizarre humor in the context of profound and genuine questions about identity, inversion, inspiration, obsession, and meaning and meta-meaning and meta-meta-meaning. It has some sharp Hollywood satire and some wildly funny plot twists. This is the kind of movie that makes fun of emotional turning points inspired by platitudes but then, when it throws one in (in the middle of a jungle environment that is real and symbolic), it's a very nice one: "You are what you love, not what loves you."

The performances are marvelous, particularly Streep as Orlean and Cooper as Laroche. Ron Livingston's performance as Charlie's agent is a small comic gem, Brian Cox is masterful as a screenwriting expert, and Judy Greer is radiant as an orchid-loving, pie-serving waitress.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: Columbia Tristar
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep, Nicolas Cage
Genre: Drama
Run time: 114 minutes
Theatrical release: January 10, 2003
DVD release: May 20, 2003
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: language, sexuality, some drug use and violent images.

This review was written by Nell Minow
 
 

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What parents & educators say

15
Based on 4 parent & educator reviews:
  • 50% say sexual content is an issue
  • 50% say language is an issue

Most useful reviews by all members

 
Wonderful but mature film
This is my favourite movie but it is designed for adults. I'd definitely recommend it for older teens.

Check Yourself
teen, 14 years old
 
A Great Writer's Movie
My favorite movie of all time. Great flick. See it.

 
Interesting, offbeat film not for kids
The end was a bit hokey, but the story until then was pretty interesting and engaging.

 
This movie was funny yes, but it's not for children at all. There is A LOT of drinking and drug use, sexual content, and strong language.

Mr581
teen, 18 years old
 
A Masterpiece
This has 3 above wonderful performances: McLovin, Meryl Streep & Chris Cooper

wwechampion
kid, 11 years old
 
Adaptation
Rated R For Language,Sexuality,Some Drug Use And Violent Images

kvirgin
parent of 7 and 12 year old
 
Not for kids at all... the Violence should have scored a "RED"
the violence in this film is very graphic. Car accidents have strong suprise element and are designed to shock the viewer: they are very realistic. My husband and I still refer to it as one of the scariest things we've seen because it is so realistically violent: you felt you were there...

bubbleboy
teen, 15 years old
 
The Many Powers of Charlie Kaufman
"Adaptation." is one of those movies that confounds you with its cleverness. When you see it, you appreciate it. That night before you go to bed, you love it. Then, in the days that follow (as the many hidden moments of genius in Charlie Kaufman's screenplay begin to hit you)it dawns on you: "Adaptation." just might be the most profound film you've ever seen. Part of what makes it works is that it knows this. It understands its profundity and then mocks others', and somehow works. It examines the very existence of being and evolution (with some clever references to Charles Darwin as well as some beautifully rendered monologues about life that never once come across as heavy-handed), the media, and the very depths of human nature. The adaptation metaphor is brilliant. Meryl Streep (always wonderful) is outstandingly good here, as she plays an incredibly difficult, complex woman who seems to be one thing but is in fact something entirely different. But perhaps the film's crowning achievement is making me enjoy a performance by Nicolas Cage. Anyone that knows me knows that I cannot have a conversation without verbally beating the man to an unrecognizable pulp. But here, playing two brothers (or are they the same man?), he shines. His ability to create two distinctly different characters in multiple scenes where they share the screen is beyond admirable. It's brilliant. As is "Adaptation.". Charlie Kaufman is simply the best writer of our time; let's all just forget that we ever saw "Synecdoche, New York." (CONTENT: Scenes of drug use; though the drug I believe to be fictional. Sex has at least a yellow flag, with inexplicit but fairly frequent scenes or discussions. Language isn't horrible, but it's definitely earned it's "R" rating. Violence, while fleeting, is very intense and jarring, especially at the end; though that scene may induce more laughter than anything else).

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