"Adaptation", like predecessor "Being John Malkovich", is a curious beast but a welcome and quite enjoyable one. There's pretty much no question that if this doesn't win a Best Screenplay nod at the Oscars next year then it's a travesty - quite frankly this is the best script for a film this year as it takes the self-referential style gags of modern filmmaking and then applies them to the very basics of the craft itself and added a couple of cc's of adrenalin into the mix.

The result is a movie that any writer, film/TV or otherwise, can easily empathise with as like it or not the main character is one that's frighteningly familiar. For some that simple closeness to real life will be enough to suck them right into what's happening - to others it'll hit so close to the bone it will only push them away. It's a film not only savagely taking potshots at Hollywood, but also at living life without a driving passion to guide you and how certain people adapt to cope with not only that but their many insecurities.

Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper all deliver their best performances in years with Cage especially just going all out in many scenes from the Malkovich set intro to the Hollywood action thriller spoof in the final act. The mixing of him and a twin brother is a fluid melding of effects with nary a moment where it appears unconvicing. Streep has some great scenes (I never thought I'd see her snorting a line in any movie) and fleshes out the character quite well - her bit in the hotel room when she's high and listening to the phone's dialtone is hilarious.

Chris Cooper is unabashedly a hoot in his performance as a man seemingly full of passion but with little weight in regards to its direction. Brian Cox also puts in a good turn as the well-known script doctor Robert McKee who has a great speech about how 'unboring' life can be. The characters themselves however become so self-involved and destructive that what starts out being a comedy turns into an almost tragic tale whose rather downbeat third act many will have arguments over for a long time to come.

Spike Jonze and co. have created a fresh and fun film which people will spend months, even years trying to analyse and or come up with different theories about. It's the kind of film which critics love, but sadly that's the opposite of where "Adaptation" will have its big struggle - with a general audience. The consistently clever tone and inspired set pieces are combined in a rather pretentious tone which will immediately raise a few backs up.

The self-referential style of filmmaking with in-jokes has become somewhat old hat these days and whilst "Adaptation" does take it in several new directions, at other times it expects us to laugh at stuff because it points out the stupidity of convention when most good writers already figured out long ago that everything they learned in film school is utterly useless. In fact the script itself is so sharp it manages to outrun the film which seems to almost struggle to keep up - especially in the last act which is fine on its own but somewhat pales compared to the slickness of the first two. Whilst the high points of 'Malkovich' (eg. the restaurant scene) are funnier and cleverer than anything in this, "Adaptation" holds together overall better than that first Jonze/Kaufman teaming.

Fresh, funny, tragic, compelling, captivating, slick, smart, unusual, pretentious, pedantic, all these words easily apply and go to show that while there'll be a divided reaction on this by an audience - there will definitely be reaction. This is one film which you won't get many fence sitters on or have people react with the phrases 'so-so' or 'eh'. It's a film that will be pulled apart and analysed by many - it's original & creative filmmaking which definitely defies generic formula.

For that alone it deserves most of the kudos that's been thrown upon it, but there's just a little something in the execution which stops it short of becoming a classic. It's hard to really pinpoint what reservations I have but in many ways that's the most painful thing about it - how close it comes to working brilliantly. It certainly deserves best acting and writing nods at many of the upcoming awards shows, but the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts sadly. Still, pretty much the most creative film of the year.