|   Saw Adaptation last night... | tugmcmartin
Jul 24, 2003 9:35 AM | | I know this one has been discussed in here before, but thought i'd throw out my two cents worth anyway.
First, Nicholas Cage was simply awesome in both roles. I'd love to know how they filmed both characters parts. I'm sure there were stand-ins used some (Cage's brother was listed as a stand-in in the credits). I'm gonna watch the special features tonight and hopefully learn more about it.
Second, i found the story to be wildly entertaining. More so than Kaufman's "Being John Malkovich". Lots of weird turns that worked. The big question i have is: was Donald a real person? Or was he an alter-ego? I know Charlie credits Donald the alter-ego as a co-writer of the movie, but i wonder if in the movie is he real or not. I could see both arguments, but i like the idea of him being an alter ego. It seemed like the only people to recognize both Donald and Charlie in the same room at the same time were girlfriend characters, who presumably would know about the different personalities of the same person. No one else acknowledged them both except Orlean, who never REALLY did, only that she thought there was another person when she got hit by the door at the end. And at that point, it was hard to tell if that part of the movie was the added stuff that McKee told Charlie needed to be added to be a good screenplay. Basically, the movie was an incredibly enjoyable mind trip in my opinion. I loved the movie within a movie concept. Its been done before a lot, but never with the same degree of creativeness as Kaufman throws into the mix here.
A couple other comments: Chris Cooper again illustrated why i think he's one of the top 3 character actors in the industry right now. Streep was decent, but i didn't think her performance was worthy of an Oscar nod. Perhaps she's set the bar too high for herself in my eyes. Of course, the competition in her category for this movie wasn't that stellar last year.
tug |
| re: how they did it | JazzHead
Jul 24, 2003 10:24 AM | | There's a great, though very technical, article in issue 93 of Cinefex magazine (it's on dead tree, not online, but here's a link to purchase it):
http://www.cinefex.com/backissues/issue93.html
In a nutshell, a mix of effects was used to twin Cage, inlcuding optical and digital effects, plus a double (not Cage's brother, though, according to the article). You'd be surprised at what other shots were SFX - the bee and orchid, for example, were digital models.
Cinefex is a pretty cool occasional read. It's geared to industry professionals, but us regular folk can understand enough of it to be entertained & enlightened.
peace,
jh. |
| Cool! Thanks. (nt) | tugmcmartin
Jul 24, 2003 10:30 AM | | |
| Was Donald real . . . | Troy
Jul 24, 2003 10:56 AM | | . . . or a figment of Charlie's imagination? That's open to interpretation and one of my favorite things about this movie. Especially compared to the hallucinatory characters in the ghastly obvious, yet critically lauded "A Beautiful Mind" from the previous year. "Adaptation's" ambiguity was very refreshing in a world of movies where nothing is left to the imagination and every nuance is explained for a 6 year-old to understand.
On another movie board, I was surprised to see some pretty smart people completely miss the ironies of this flick and summarily dismiss it. They actually failed to see that the movie sold out into a chase at the end as the ultimate irony depicting that that is just how life is sometimes. Viewers have gotten SO lazy, thanks to fast food burgers like "Pirates of the Carribean" that they have lost the pallette to enjoy an elaborately prepared and exotic meal like "Adaptaion". It's a shame.
Rent "Punch Drunk Love" Tug, I think you may like that one too. |
| Was Donald real . . . | tugmcmartin
Jul 24, 2003 11:36 AM | | "On another movie board, I was surprised to see some pretty smart people completely miss the ironies of this flick and summarily dismiss it." - Yeah... there were so many ironies in there that were just rich. And i too loved the fact that the whole thing is left open to interpretation. It kind of lets the viewer let it be whatever they want it to be to make them happy. I hate being force-fed stories where you know whats going to happen an hour before it happens. Kaufman has proven to to be anything but predictable. He's up there with Shamalayan in screenplays in my book, probably a little bit higher because i think he's more unpredictable.
Punch Drunk Love is i think number 5 in my rental queue at Netflix. Can't wait to see it.
Antwone Fisher is on deck for tonight. |
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