What I Watched Today: "Adaptation" (2002) and "The L-Shaped Room" (1963)

"Adaptation", directed by Spike Jonze and starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper (all three were Oscar nominated, with Cooper winning as Best Supporting Actor).  Cage plays screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (and his brother Donald) who is charged with adapting the book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean (Streep), about the title character, played by Cooper.

The good: It was quirky and fun, and I loved the idea of a screenwriter driving himself crazy during the whole creative writing process.  Cage's performance in the dual roles of Charlie and Donald was impressive, as they were among the most 'normal' performances that Cage has ever done on film.  Cooper creates such an interesting, original character that he was definitely the highlight of the film, performancewise.

The bad: It was a little too quirky for its own good, and Streep comes off the weakest of the three central performers.  I didn't care for the film's ending that much either, and the whole subplot dealing with a pompous screenwriting expert played by Brian Cox was just annoying.

"The L-Shaped Room" was directed by Bryan Forbes, and starred Leslie Caron as Jane, a young Frenchwoman living in England who finds herself with "technical difficulty" (a 60's era euphemism for an unmarried pregnant girl).  She won the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Jane moves into a less than grand boardinghouse, where she befriends struggling writer Toby (Tom Bell), immigrant musician Johnny (Brock Peters), and elderly music hall veteran Mavis (Cicely Courtneidge) as she makes her decisions regarding her life and her pregnancy.

The good: Atmospheric direction by Forbes perfectly fits these stories of lives lived on the fringes of happiness, and Caron gives a strong, complex performance as Jane, who must take responsibility for her life and choices on a daily basis.  The nicest surprise for me in the film was the character Mavis, who acts in a motherly way towards Jane but has a surprise or two of her own to reveal during the course of the picture.  The story itself is intelligent and adult, without becoming too explicit or keeping a safe distance from the characters.

The bad: The subject matter promises that this won't exactly be an uplifting, feel-good kind of movie, and one wishes that some gentle humor or perhaps a lighter tone was used in certain spots.  Also, there's the over-the-top playing of supporting actress Avis Bunnage as the boardinghouse landlady; like with her role in "The Whisperers" (1967), a little of Bunnage goes a long, long way.