I did something on Saturday that I don't think I've ever done before in my life. I watched a movie three times, back-to-back-to-back. And this was after watching it for the first time the night before. This movie was Adaptation.

This is one of the best movies I've come across. Quite a nice surprise, since I hadn't even heard of it until I saw it on the shelf at the movie rental place next to the Peace Corps office.

There is so much to recommend in Adaptation that it's hard to know where to begin. First you have the brilliant performances by Nick Cage, Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep. Cooper won an Oscar for his role, but it was really Cage, playing the twin screenwriting siblings, who stole the show. Not only is Cage not his normal suave self, quite the opposite actually--he must have put on 40 pounds for this role, but he creates two characters at once so similar that you believe that they are identical twins and so different that you forget it's the same actor. It's is a remarkable effort.

The movie is filled with elements that I love. The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, moving seamlessly in time and between the two stories. My favorite movies all involve flashback as the main storytelling motif. Fight Club, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Il Conformisto, Sunset Boulevard and on and on.

There there's the self-reflexivity. The movie is so self-conscious. Since this is a movie about making itself, this is natural, but it's done in a way that is both funny and clever. During the course of the movie, Kaufman is trying to come to grips with his inability to adapt "The Orchid Thief" into a screenplay. You constantly see him struggle. Yet when he has an epiphany, you are rewarded with the machinations behind something that already has or will appear on screen.

The apotheosis of this reflexivity is when Kaufman, desparately behind on his deadline, decides to write himself into the screenplay. Since we already see Kaufman as character in the movie, this is not a big surprise. Later Kaufaman laments to his brother about how self-indulgent it is. But can it be self-indulgent if the writer suffers such visible and public angst over it? I don't think so.

At the beginning of the movie, Kaufman is pitching his idea for the screenplay. He says he wants to stay true to the book and not turn it into a Hollywood movie with car chases, guns and sex, which is exactly what happens, but in such a way that you don't even notice it until you've seen the movie a few times.

Then there's Robert McKee, the screenwriting guru, who counsels Kaufman, whatever you do, don't use a deus ex machina, which, of course, is exactly what McKee is.

Then there are so many memorable lines from the movie. Here is one of my favorites:

"I have no understanding of anything outside of my own panic and seth-loathing and pathetic little existence"

This is a gem of film. Do yourself a favor and go out and rent if you haven't seen it.