Jan. 11, 2003 - 12:41 am
this one's nominated for tons of Golden Globes and probably will see some Oscar nominations too. Colin and i had been wanting to see this movie for a while, but like everything else, it took a while to show up in Knoxville. and of course, even on it's premier night here, it didn't play to a full house. so few interesting people in Tennessee.
this is the newest film from Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman. they did Being John Malkovich (1999) if you didn't know that already. but this one might even be screwier. it seems to be basically half based on a true story, half completely fictional. the film's main character is actually the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage). he's trying to write a screenplay based on the real life best-selling novel The Orchid Thief. he has a lot of writer's block on this particular project so he starts to do research on the book and the author. we see bits and pieces of her experience interviewing John Laroche (the "orchid thief"). but all the while, Charlie keeps having problems writing and meeting people in general because of his insecurities about himself. and it doesn't help that his twin brother Donald (who is also played by Nicholas Cage, but does not exist in real life) keeps having so much success in writing a new thriller screenplay that everyone seems to love, even though it's complete crap.
i have to agree with Colin, the main plot elements of this were a little to predictable near the end. throughout the film Charlie is getting all types of suggestions on how he should alter the story to make it doable as a movie. he scorns all of that and says that it's crap and that he doesn't want to do that to this great book filled with purity. of course that all kind of goes out the window at the end and that's exactly how everything seems to play out. it's sort of a secondhand way of selling out i guess you might say. he makes it seem as though this was a true account of him writing the screenplay and the things he experienced in the writing of it. but in truth, those things are lies and the movie is filled with all of the cliches that Charlie hates. i guess the fact that it's told in this third person, semi nonfictional manner though is supposed to make it ok. i kind of agree with what he did with this screenplay, and i sort of disagree.
overall a very entertaining film though, some parts are very hilarious, and great acting from Nicholas Cage. this just goes to show me again that sometimes he's awesome, even though he's usually not. but of course this is a very innovative screenplay again and might even be called genius. i'll continue to watch with a keen eye this Charlie Kaufman. you never know what he'll come up with next.