Although Adaptation boasts some former Oscar winners in the starring roles, I hate to say it but I found the picture rather empty and with way too much dialogue and little meat and potatioes. Yes, I agree that the very talented Chris Cooper was deserving and thus he won a best actor in a supporting actor award for his role as the toothless John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made writer Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. If you pay close enough attention to what is going on, Susan Orlean is assigned to adapt her non-fiction book "The Orchid Thief" for the screen but is having difficulty finding enough material content (that is the meat and potatoes that I found lacking) to make her book transfer to the big screen. A noted screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is hired to bring the book to the screen but he also is having a writer's block.
Susan Orlean's solution was to meet with John Laroche and go on an orchid hunt for a very rarely seen orchid. Of course Ms. Orleans and Mr. Laroche find what they are looking for in the conservation area that they are trespassing on, and to get Ms. Orlean excited John Laroche suggests she inhales some of the particles of the orchid to feel the euphoria that he also feels.
In my humble opinion maybe if I also had sniffed some drugs as Ms. Orleans had, maybe I would have enjoyed this two tier story line more than i did. I will give it a 6 out of 10 IMDb rating for originiality but I tend to withhold a higher IMDb rating for films that I actually find entertaining and not based on artsy fartsy dialogue and rich idealism.
Susan Orlean's solution was to meet with John Laroche and go on an orchid hunt for a very rarely seen orchid. Of course Ms. Orleans and Mr. Laroche find what they are looking for in the conservation area that they are trespassing on, and to get Ms. Orlean excited John Laroche suggests she inhales some of the particles of the orchid to feel the euphoria that he also feels.
In my humble opinion maybe if I also had sniffed some drugs as Ms. Orleans had, maybe I would have enjoyed this two tier story line more than i did. I will give it a 6 out of 10 IMDb rating for originiality but I tend to withhold a higher IMDb rating for films that I actually find entertaining and not based on artsy fartsy dialogue and rich idealism.