I was watching TV the other night and was getting ready to go to bed. Somehow I flipped to a channel that was playing the movie Adaptation. I picked it up at the beginning and couldn’t stop watching it. I ended up staying up until 3 a.m. The whole movie was such a relief after seeing one of the worst endings ever in War of the Worlds in the same weekend — but that’s another story. Surrounded by an industry of cliché, Adaptation is a dramatic-comedy that will keep you guessing what is going to happen next the whole way through. It does have some rough language, realistic images of violence and sexual imagery (valid scenes dealing with fantasy, not gratuitous) so it’s not a family film but the theme (change and how people deal with it), plot and the dialog are just great. There is a lot of voice-over written in “stream on consciousness” format that is honest and real about how people think and live. He’s a little sample from the main character who is having a bit of writer’s block:

Charlie Kaufman: [voice-over] Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier my hair wouldn’t be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I’m a walking cliché. I really need to go to the doctor and have my leg checked. There’s something wrong. A bump. The dentist called again. I’m way overdue. If I stop putting things off I would be happier. All I do is sit on my fat ass. If my ass wasn’t fat I would be happier. I wouldn’t have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time. Like that’s fooling anyone. Fat ass. I should start jogging again. Five miles a day. Really do it this time. Maybe rock climbing. I need to turn my life around. What do I need to do? I need to fall in love. I need to have a girlfriend. I need to read more and prove myself. What if I learned Russian or something, or took up an instrument. I could speak Chinese. I’d be the screenwriter who speaks Chinese and plays the oboe. That would be cool. I should get my hair cut short. Stop trying to fool myself and everyone else into thinking I have a full head of hair. How pathetic is that. Just be real. Confident. Isn’t that what women are attracted to? Men don’t have to be attractive. But that’s not true. Especially these days. Almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days. Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it’s my brain chemistry. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I’ll still be ugly though. Nothing’s going to change that.

P.S. Don’t read any reviews, just go see it without knowing what to expect and you will be pleasantly surprised.