Adaptation
Directed by Spike Jonze
Starring:Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
Adaptation: Movie F, DVD N/A (I'll explain at the end of the review)
Adaptation was a huge disappointment to me. I wasn't disappointed that the movie wasn't good, I was disappointed in the way I was treated by the filmmakers. I feel Adaptation is probably one of the most condescending movies I have ever watched. If you haven't seen in, and want to, you should probably stop reading now. It is impossible to effectively discuss this movie without talking about the ending.
Let me just say that I "got the movie." In the end it turns into everything the struggling screenwriter was speaking out against. Ok, I get it, but that doesn't make it good or clever or anything. The endiing really just negated the rest of the movie, I truly felt as though I had just wasted my time. I mean I was totatlly with it for a while. I thought Nicholas Cage's performance was great, and I did like the intertwining parallel stories. I was totally into the aspect of the screenwriter who is struggling between telling a thoughtful and artistic story or giving in to mass market convention.
There were some really good ideas in Adaptation, why they had to throw them away in an attempt to make some lame point aobut movie audiences is beyond me. Did they think that by throwing in a bunch of movie cliches at the end they would lure in "the masses" that are too stupid to know any better? And for those who do know better, they would just be so captivated by the "cleverness" of the whole thing? That is what it seemed to me. Adaptation was just winking at the "non-typical" movie-goer, as if they are all above everyone else. I find myself so bitter about the way I was "treated" by this movie, that I don't find discussing the movie itself worthwhile.
This DVD has no features. In most cases I agree that the movie should stand on its own, too bad this one can't.
Review by Sherry |
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