Dir: Spike Jonze. US. 2002. 114mins

"The best script I've ever read" is a line oft spoken, by star Meryl Streep among many others, of Adaptation, the eagerly awaited reunion of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze after 1999's Being John Malkovich turned American movies on their head. The answer to the question of whether Jonze does that enthusiasm justice on screen is a resounding yes, creating a film about film-making and the creative process which is right up there with Day For Night, Contempt and The Bad And The Beautiful as one of the greats. A more pressing question being asked of Adaptation now that Jonze has finally delivered a great film is who will want to see it. Buyers at MIFED who saw the film admired its excellence but still balked at the prices being asked by financier Intermedia. An art film, they claimed, despite the presence of Streep and Nicolas Cage in the lead roles. Too "inside", many moaned. Too clever by half, said others.

But Adaptation is not just a film about writing a film, nor a stylish cult item like Malkovich. The real achievement of Kaufman and Jonze here is that they have created something universal in Kaufman's very - very - loose adaptation of Susan Orlean's bestseller The Orchid Thief. The lasting impact of Adaptation is as a moving meditation on the search for meaning and passion in life. Specialised audiences won't miss it and mainstream audiences drawn by Cage, Streep, the critical raves and avalanche of awards will find it rewarding, engaging and funny. It's a hit which will far outstrip the $35m-plus grossed worldwide by Being John Malkovich.

It certainly sounds self-referential and possibly irritating. In adapting to film The Orchid Thief, the true story of New Yorker writer Orlean and her relationship with the subject of her book - brilliant, toothless botanist John Laroche whose passion for breeding orchids has got him into trouble with the law - Kaufman wrote a script about himself adapting the novel and struggling with writer's block. He also created a twin brother/alter ego for himself, Donald Kaufman, whose brutish self-confidence and plans to write commercial screenplays are diametrically opposed to his own lack of self-worth and tortured plans to create something meaningful.

But the conceit works to perfection. The film switches effortlessly between Kaufman's malaise in Los Angeles, Orlean as she writes the original book and the adaptation of book itself. As he gradually retells the story of The Orchid Thief, Kaufman and Orlean address not just the dilemmas of literary adaptation from real events to novel to screenplay but also the ability of human beings to adapt themselves in an evolutionary sense - to keep refreshing their experience and avoid complacency.

In the film's surprising third act, Kaufman comes up with an ending for his film version of The Orchid Thief which is different from that of the book. Enlisting the help of screenwriting guru Robert McKee (played by Brian Cox) and his brother Donald, he spins the story into an altogether different genre, one which he has previously scorned.

Difficult to describe in a few hundred words, Adaptation is an essential cinematic experience - witty, bold, endlessly clever and ultimately profound. It questions the very structure of film itself and operates on several different levels, each individually effective. It's not difficult to see why Jonze took over a year to finish the film in post. The switches from reality to novel to film are numerous, and the special effects required to create the twin brothers, both played by Cage, are stunning.

Along the way, we revisit the set of Being John Malkovich as Cage's Kaufman nervously visits the filming (cameos here from Malkovich, John Cusack and Catherine Keener), encounter different Hollywood types - bland studio executive Tilda Swinton and offensive agent Ron Livingston among them - and see different women (Seymour, Greer, Gyllenhaal) challenge Kaufman's lack of dating prowess. Director Curtis Hanson plays Orlean's husband and David O Russell (who directed Jonze in Three Kings) plays a guest at a dinner party hosted by Hanson and Streep.

Last, but not least, the performances are outstanding. Cage and Cooper are almost dead certs for Oscar nominations (in lead and supporting categories respectively), delivering career-best work. Transforming himself into a flabby, almost simian depressive with thinning hair and no talent with women, Cage's Charlie is as different from his action star persona as he is from his swaggering, amiable twin. In a less showy role, Streep is, of course, excellent. She in fact has the film's best, most startling line, delivered towards the climax when the course of the film takes an unexpected turn.

Prod cos: Magnet, Clinica Estetico
US dist: Columbia Pictures
Int'l sales: Intermedia
Exec prods: Charlie Kaufman, Peter Saraf
Prods: Edward Saxon, Vincent Landay, Jonathan Demme
Scr: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman, based on the novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Cinematography: Lance Acord
Prod des: KK Barrett
Ed: Eric Zumbrunnen
Mus: Carter Burwell
Main cast: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Brian Cox, Cara Seymour, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ron Livingston