Adaptation

What a bewilderingly brilliant and entertaining movie this is.

It's typical of the nerve, the bravado, the sheer giddy playfulness and sense of fun that characterize what has to be the boldest and most imaginative studio film of the year.

An inspired flight of fancy, an oddly poignant examination of the creative process, a rumination on adaptation (orchids to their environment, books to the screen and misfits like Charlie to life) and, in its ultimate irony, a story in which our hero learns a life-altering lesson.

Surely the most creative trick of the year and grimly funny throughout.

I realize that the fear of contracting writer's block from a fictional character is crazy, but in the brilliantly scrambled, self-consuming world of Adaptation it has a certain plausibility.

May not be the first movie to examine the creative process. But it's the most playfully brilliant.

Surely the most creative trick of the year and grimly funny throughout.

I realize that the fear of contracting writer's block from a fictional character is crazy, but in the brilliantly scrambled, self-consuming world of Adaptation it has a certain plausibility.

Screenwriting this smart, inventive, passionate and rip-roaringly funny is a rare species. It's magic.

Screenwriting this smart, inventive, passionate and rip-roaringly funny is a rare species. It's magic.