Sorry Charlie

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2004)

Screenwriter extraordinaire Charlie Kaufman is one of the most brilliant and inventive people in Hollywood, a town thick with brilliant, inventive people.
BUT, he lost me here. "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich" also played with space and time, but atleast they were heading somewhere, and I could follow them. "ESOTSM" (you should do the Donald Trump thing and copyright that term, Charlie!) records and erases itself over and over again, so much so that it's dizzying. Beautifully done (round of applause to the production crew), but dizzying.
As the survivor of a few failed starts myself, it made me wonder, did these two characters ever have anything worth getting that upset about? Or was it a lot of smoke, but not much fire? Even after two hours, it feels like they just met.
I've read complaints here about the Mark Ruffalo/Kursten Durnst/Tom Wilkinson/Elijah Wood subplots. Actually, I enjoyed the subplots! They were a sweet (I was about to say "nice") diversion. But where was the song from the trailer? I wanted to hear the song from the trailer, not that dreary "Cougars" remake from Beck.
Charlie, I'm still in awe of you man, but I enjoyed your other movies more. Neat lessons on love though.