Self-referential. Self-deprecating. Self-adapting. "Adaptation" marks another successful collaboration of director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. The first time around, in "Being John Malkovich," they gave us a fascinating, Freudian can of worms that dealt with immortality, repressed homosexuality, and the subconscious--big themes disguised in quirky comedy. Like Malkovich, "Adaptation" deals with more than it seems to.

First I must mention that I don't really like Nicolas Cage. I can't even remember the last good role he had. Watching this film, I really did forget that it was Nicolas Cage on screen. He does an excellent job of playing both Charlie and Donald Kaufman, the latter doesn't actually exist but serves as Charlie's alter ego. Donald becomes a screenwriter after Charlie but, unlike Charlie, he is more concerned with using commercial, formulaic conventions in his script. Listening to Donald rant about his script throughout the film is hilarious. Also, unlike Charlie, Donald is successful with women. While he is busy writing a script called "The 3" (about a killer with three personalities), Charlie has been given an assignment that is far from conventional: to adapt Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief." He remarks to a studios exec, "why can't there just be a movie about flowers?" But when Charlie struggles to turn it into a screenplay, he ends up writing himself in it.

The theme of "The Orchid Thief" that resonates with Charlie is passion. It is about a man, Florida plant expert John LaRoche, who is completely driven by one goal --to find the mysterious "ghost orchid." Orlean wishes that she could care about something as much as LaRoche cares about orchids. The lack of conflict in the book leads Charlie to express his inner torment and conflict in his script. It becomes apparent what we aren't watching Charlie write the script, we are watching Charlie write about himself script writing about himself in the script, etc. It is a twisting Mobius strip...that sounds confusing, but watching the movie really is not.

It is nice to see Meryl Streep playing Orlean, she exudes the longing and restraint that Kaufman sees in her character. The best performance in the film has to belong to, the always excellent, Chris Cooper. LaRoche looks like a typical Southern hick, but Orlean sees beauty in him. He is a passionate man, like a knight searching for the Holy Grail, after something he will not find. Maybe she just sees him that way, he could be in it for money and fame. We are seeing him through the eyes of Charie and Orlean. Cooper plays him as a fanatic trapped in a hick's body. He is a tortured man, who has gone through death and divorce. The orchid has taken the place of family in his life.

Towards the end of the film, Donald takes over the screenplay because Charlie can't figure out how to end it. Thus the ending of the film is much more Hollywood. We have car chases, murder, drug running, voyeurism, and characters reaching epiphanies. It is hilarious watching the film slip into these conventions that it seems to detest. Ultimately, "Adaptation" is about people adapting to their surroundings, but struggling to be themselves. Charlie, Susan, and LaRoche are all alone, trapped in their own worlds. It is impossible for them to reach out to others. If we want to be true to ourselves but connect in the process, maybe we are also searching for a ghost.