(2002) directed by Spike Jonze, starring Nicolas Cage, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, and a few people as themselves, etc.
Synopsis: A nontraditional, nested story (set of stories, actually) about a screen-writer, writer, etc. Promising, but.
Review: Probably the worst well-done movie I’ve ever seen. The acting, for what it’s worth, is extremely on-target. Functionally, the script may work. But on the whole, this is a movie that is painfully, gruesomely awful. Some movies have redemptive qualities. Some movies, however terrible, at least give you something to enjoy. Some movies reward you for what you’ve endured. This is not one of those movies. It is different, yes. It is creative in a ‘different’ way, yes. But this is not a clever movie. The phrase “pretentiously self-aware” comes to mind. (For the record, I didn’t care much for Being John Malkovich [also by Spike Jonze], either, though that film at least had some enjoyable parts.) The more I think about it, the less I like Adaptation. So it gets just one star (or pip, or whatever you want to call it). Out of five. Terrible. Unfortunate. Abysmal.
Rating: [•] out of [•••••]
Etc.: US Gross $22,498,520; imdb info; allmovie info