Nicolas Cage is Charlie Kaufman, a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt “The Orchid Thief,” by Susan Orlean, Kaufman’s life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean’s book, become strangely intertwined as each one’s search for passion collides with the others’.

Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman: Nicolas Cage
• Susan Orlean: Meryl Streep
• John Laroche: Chris Cooper
• Valerie Thomas: Tilda Swinton
• Amelia Kavan: Cara Seymour
• Marty Bowen: Ron Livingston
• Robert McKee: Brian Cox
• Alice the Waitress: Judy Greer
• Caroline Cunningham: Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Matthew Osceola: Jay Tavare
• Ranger Tony: Jim Beaver
• Russell: Litefoot
• Augustus Margary: Doug Jones
• Buster Baxley: Gary Farmer
• Randy: Roger Willie
• Defense Attorney: Peter Jason
• Prosecutor: Gregory Itzin
• Orlean’s Husband: Curtis Hanson
• Laroche’s Mom: Sandra Lee Gimpel
• David: Bob Stephenson
• Orlean Dinner Guest: Lisa Love
• Restaurant Customer (uncredited): Curt Clendenin
• Himself (uncredited): John Malkovich
• Herself (uncredited): Catherine Keener
• Himself (uncredited): John Cusack
• Cafe Customer: Donald Dowd

Film Crew:

• Executive Producer: Charlie Kaufman
• Original Music Composer: Carter Burwell
• Director of Photography: Lance Acord
• Production Design: K.K. Barrett
• Sound Designer: Richard Beggs
• Producer: Jonathan Demme
• Producer: Edward Saxon
• Executive Producer: Peter Saraf
• Wardrobe Designer: Ann Roth
• Director: Spike Jonze
• Art Direction: Peter Andrus
• Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
• Producer: Vincent Landay
• Editor: Eric Zumbrunnen
• Casting: Justine Baddeley
• Costume Design: Casey Storm
• Second Unit Director: Dan Bradley
• Special Effects: Gary D’Amico
• Stunts: Rick Barker
• Book: Susan Orlean
• Makeup & Hair: J. Roy Helland
• Sound Mixer: Derek Vanderhorst
• ADR Editor: David Bach
• Makeup Department Head: Joel Harlow
• Stand In: Julie Janney
• Location Manager: Richard Schuler
• Stunts: Eddie Yansick
• Script Supervisor: Chiemi Karasawa
• Hairstylist: Larry Waggoner
• Unit Production Manager: Karen Koch
• Casting: Kim Davis-Wagner
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Kent Sparling
• Wardrobe Supervisor: Stacy Horn
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Lora Hirschberg
• Production Sound Mixer: Drew Kunin
• Costumer: Debbie Travis
• Transportation Captain: Griff Ruggles
• Music Editor: Adam Milo Smalley
• Leadman: Grant Samson
• Stunts: Darrin Prescott
• Foley Supervisor: William Storkson
• Foley Artist: Marnie Moore
• Set Designer: Peter Davidson
• Art Department Coordinator: Patti McNulty
• Sound Effects Editor: Peter Staubli
• Assistant Editor: Nathan R. Fitzgerald
• Stunts: Scott Rogers
• Dialogue Editor: David A. Cohen
• Costumer: Marina Marit
• Costumer: Anita Louise Brown
• Makeup Artist: Allen Weisinger
• Assistant Chief Lighting Technician: Chris Weigand
• Supervising Sound Editor: Michael Kirchberger
• Stunts: Lane Leavitt
• Stunts: Chris Carnel
• Hairstylist: Joseph Coscia
• First Assistant Editor: Eric Osmond
• Makeup Artist: Isabel Harkins
• Makeup Artist: Lynn Barber
• Assistant Sound Editor: Julia Shirar
• Assistant Property Master: Chris Vail
• Set Designer: Lynn Christopher
• Stand In: Marco Kyris
• Visual Effects Supervisor: Gray Marshall
• Scoring Mixer: Michael Farrow
• Production Supervisor: Andrew J. Sacks
• First Assistant Camera: Jamie Felz
• Second Assistant Camera: Nina Chien
• Construction Coordinator: Chris Forster
• Hair Department Head: Roz Music
• Boom Operator: Lawrence L. Commans
• Sound Mixer: Mark Weber
• Property Master: Jeffrey Paul Johnson
• Apprentice Sound Editor: Everett Moore
• Assistant Sound Editor: Jeremy Molod
• Dialogue Editor: David Franklin Bergad
• First Assistant Director: Thomas Patrick Smith
• Dolly Grip: Danny Andersen
• First Assistant Camera: Mark Williams
• Sound Designer: David Abrahamsen
• Color Timer: Bob Fredrickson
• Foley Mixer: Nick Peck
• Second Assistant Director: Brian O’Kelley
• Stand In: Jonathan Paley
• Chief Lighting Technician: Michael S. Adler
• Boom Operator: Mark Fay
• Actor’s Assistant: Stephen Bures
• Video Assist Operator: Mike Pickel
• Camera Operator: Thomas Lohmann
• Production Accountant: Seve Spracklen
• Steadicam Operator: Paul Taylor
• Transportation Co-Captain: Ronald Stinton
• Stunts: Norb Phillips
• Second Second Assistant Director: Gregory J. Smith
• Wardrobe Supervisor: Shari Gray
• Key Grip: Gino Nix
• Dolly Grip: Zoli Hajdu
• Production Coordinator: Rick C. Taplin
• Construction Foreman: Anders Rundblad
• Still Photographer: Ben Kaller
• Foley Recordist: Jory K. Prum

Movie Reviews:

• Gimly: I’m reacting the way the world does to movies about making movies about making movies. I mean come on, Charlie Kaufman, some of us have work in the morning, damn.

  _Final rating:★★½ – Not quite for me, but I definitely get the appeal._

• CinemaSerf: When you watch some of Nicolas Cage’s more recent stuff you do wonder how on earth he ever became a star in the first place. Well, this is one of the films that reminds us why. He is a struggling screenwriter (“Charlie”) charged with adapting a novel about orchids written by “Susan Orlean” (Meryl Streep). Mental block would be putting it mildly – he simply has no idea how to make it work for “Valerie” (easily one of the less abstruse roles played by Tilda Swinton). Moreover, he is constantly hassled by his twin brother “Donald” who is writing his own story – one that his sibling thinks is riddled with flaws and inconsistencies. The book he must adapt centres around the activities of “Laroche” (Chris Cooper) who had a habit of going with his Seminole pals to remove rare plants from a nature reserve. Illegal? Well not if you know your way around the Floridian penal code, and the ensuing court case is what entices “New Yorker” reporter “Orlean” to write his story. Initially sceptical of her rather uncouth subject matter – not helped by his missing front teeth, she discovers there is much more to the man and his provision of a green powder soon helps her to relax! What now ensues nicely marries the threads of the storylines as both Cage characters, an excellently enigmatic Cooper, and the unfulfilled Miss Streep find themselves gradually drawn together for an admittedly pretty far-fetched denouement (pronounce denooeymont). Cage plays the two characters with considerable skill; he juggles his characters’ frustrations with his writing, his love life, his brother and his own reluctance to meet the author engagingly and at times he can make you squirm in your seat a bit. There is plenty of humour, and the all but two hours just flies by. If nothing else, it does make you appreciate just how difficult is is to turn a novel into a film – and might explain why so few people are actually any good at it!