Adaptation review

 Number 538 on the top 1000 films of all time is the metafictional comedy-drama Adaptation.

Adaptation follows real-life screenwriter Charlie Kauffman (Nicholas Cage) as he struggles to adapt Susan Orleans' book 'The Orchid Thief' to the screen. Not even his identical twin brother Donald (also played by Cage) can help him. An interwoven subplot sees Susan Orleans' (Meryl Streep) process behind writing book including an attraction to John Laroche (Chris Cooper) a horticulturalist whose arrest for poaching orchids was the inspiration for Susan's book.

If there was a list for the top 1000 zaniest films of all time than Adaptation would surely be number one. The metafictional nature of the film ensures that you are in for an entertaining if somewhat convoluted ride. It is a film that centres on the topic of writing films itself. And its subject matter is Charlie Kauffman (who also wrote the screenplay.) Charlie Kauffman himself is portrayed as socially anxious and incredibly neurotic unlike his more confident twin brother Donald.  The film opens with a behind-the-scenes clip of Kauffman's famous film Being John Malkovich and only gets weirder from there as we see the intense writer's block that forms upon his struggles to adapt the Orchid Thief.

Nicholas Cage plays the Kauffman twins (although Donald is fictional.) Cage is a strange actor. At times he is capable of brilliance like when he won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, but at other times he is so incredibly over-the-top. In this role, I think he managed to balance both traits well. At times, you can truly understand the pain that Kauffman is experiencing as well as his alienation from life. At other times, you can see the stranger side of Cage coming out especially in scenes where he is acting against himself. I guess his zany portrayal matched the zany nature of the film.

More enjoyable was Meryl Streep as the emotionally conflicted Susan Orleans. She develops a begrudging affection for Laroche and eventually becomes his secret lover. She brought a lot of emotional gravitas to the role. And her actions propelled us into the rather chaotic final act which was surprisingly gripping compared to the rest of the film.

*spoiler alert*

Donald Kauffman is also a screen-writer - far more successful than his twin brother. Charlie asks Donald to interview Susan while pretending to be his brother. Donald becomes suspicious of Susan and secretly follows her where he discovers she is having an affair with Laroche. Susan doesn't want to be exposed so she resolves to kill Donald. A big chase through a swamp ensues involving guns, alligators and a fatal car crash. It was an unexpected end to an unexpected movie.

Lastly, I will give a quick shoutout to Chris Cooper who won the Oscar for playing John Laroche. It was certainly a good performance as he provided some nuance to a strange character.

Strange is probably the best way I  could describe Adaptation. It was a thoroughly off-kilter and zany movie.

Fantastic Mr Fox review

 Number 496 on the top 1000 films of all time is Wes Anderson's animated comedy Fantastic Mr Fox.

Based on Roald Dahl's 1970 story, Fantastic Mr Fox follows Foxy Fox (George Clooney) who regularly thieves from three farmers: Boggis (Robin Hurlstone,) Bunce (Hugo Guiness) and Bean (Michael Gambon.) These farmers swear revenge on Foxy Fox endangering him, his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) and his family and friends.

This was a stop-motion film and the animation was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the rich Autumnal colour schemes. The colour truly popped. All the different animals looked adorable too from Foxy Fox to his badger lawyer voiced by Bill Murray to the villainous rat voiced by Willem Defoe.

However, this star-studded cast and lovely animation wasn't enough to stop this ultimately being a film made for kids. I was hoping that it would be a family friendly film that would appeal to children and parents alike a la Monsters Inc or Toy Story, but this really was meant for little children. And that did hurt its watchability factor. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man, but maybe it was seemingly obvious that this film was always meant for kids. Children would love the bright colour scheme and the adorable animal characters.

Nevertheless, the conflicts were very juvenile such as the subplot of Mr Fox's son Ash Fox and his rivalry with his cousin Kristofferson. Ash feels threatened and jealous of his seemingly perfect cousin. This is a subplot that would be obviously appealing to little kids but not grumpy, old curmudgeons like me. All the violence bordered on cartoonish, like Mr Fox and his oppossum sidekick climbing up an electric fence. With every climb, the electric shocks x-ray their entire bodies. 

And a lot of the dialogue was contrived. It didn't seem natural and I think that some of that was down to George Clooney himself. I noticed that in a lot of conversations Mr Fox had with his son there were these strange hesitations at the end of each line. You could argue that, at first, this signifies their strained relationship. But their relationship fixes throughout the film, so why are there still the strange hesitations?

I think if I was twenty years younger I would have loved this film, but, now,  I'm far too much of a grumpy old man. It was good as far as it went, but that wasn't very far at all.