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| Nicolas
Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Cara Seymour, Tilda Swinton,
Brian Cox |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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John Laroche (Chris Cooper): Then
one morning, I woke up and said, "Fuck fish!" I renounce
fish, I will never set foot in that ocean again. And there hasn't
been a time
where I have stuck so much as a toe back in that ocean.
Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep): But why?
John Laroche (Chris Cooper): Done with fish.
A lovelorn screenwriter turns to
his less talented twin brother for help when his efforts to adapt
a non-fiction book go nowhere.
 Having
established themselves as the most innovative writer/director team
to emerge in recent years from the American indie scene with their
inspired but overlong off-the-wall comedy Being John Malkovich,
Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman reteamed for this masterful comedy. Adaptation.
represents a significant step up in filmmaking skills from the
entire team, a screenwriting, acting and directing tour de
force that deliberately tries to be too smart for its own good,
and amazingly gets away with it.
Unlike their first film, which
started off brilliantly but that ultimately descended into gimmicky
sex farce, Kaufman and Jonze sustain a multi-layered meditation
on the creative process without ever resorting to pretentiousness,
and in the process create one of the funniest, most brilliantly
conceived literary adaptations in recent memory. Nicolas Cage redeems
himself from many a paycheck action flick, and Meryl Streep reminds
us for the first time in ages what a formidable actress she can
be. But the ever-reliable Chris Cooper just about walks away with
the entire film in an unparallelled, and justly celebrated performance
as the eccentric orchid thief John Laroche. Nothing short of a
contemporary masterpiece that delivers on the promise of Malkovich. |
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Similar releases are available
for Region 1 and Region 2. The American DVD was released
under Columbia's Superbit banner and therefore includes no
extras at all. The Region 2 release has the same technical
specifications (including both DTS and Dolby Digital audio)
with a few inconsequential extras thrown in as well. The
Region 2 release served as the basis for this review.
The anamorphic widescreen
image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.85:1. Released
for Region 1 under Columbia's Superbit banner, the European
DVD features the same excellent transfer from the American
release. The transfer boasts outstanding detail, with the
minor visible grain is a completely natural-looking element
of the film's rough-and-ready visual style.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix provides a surprisingly immersive
experience for such a dialogue-based comedy. The score is
spread fully across the surround sound field, with the occasional
intense moments in the film benefiting from the full impact
of the discrete multi-channel sound design. The DTS audio
track is even better, with a more ethereal quality to the
higher ranges in the musical score, and more power to the
intense sequences.
The American DVD carried
no extras at all, but for some reason, the Region 2 version
includes some utterly redundant promotional interviews with
the three main actors and the director, all of whom simply
expound on the brilliance of the screenplay and the production
team. A handful of trailers is also on board,
but there's nothing that adds anything substantial to the
film.The menu screens are oddly designed
around the motif of Polaroids that can be selected for viewing
scenes or cast interviews.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: October
15,
2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Adaptation.
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to return to the front page.
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