Filming a movie must be one of life's most surreal experiences. Admittedly, I don't have any first-hand knowledge of this, but let's consider the facts: You have a group of people who are all pretending to be other people; most films are shot out of sequence; finally, most films are either pure fantasy or chronicle the most extreme aspects of the human drama.

No wonder actors, directors, screenwriters and other filmmakers are a strange lot.

And yet, strangeness does not even begin to describe Adaptation, the latest effort from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. This is the sort of film that defies explanation and exists within its own genre.

The story behind the film, and the story within it, for that matter, is that Kaufman was given the job of adapting Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief into a film. When most writers have problems with their story, they struggle, anguish and if they're lucky, come up with a solution. When Kaufman has troubles, he decides to abandon the normal practice of adapting a book and instead writes a story about his struggles in writing a story.

The film opens with Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) in a meeting with his agent. He is being given the assignment to adapt The Orchid Thief. He knows nothing of orchids and is immediately aware that the book was far outside of his usual writing talents, but he is too timid to do anything but accept the assignment.

Charlie's troubles begin almost immediately as he reads through the book and discovers that there is very little there to form the story for a movie. Making matters worse is Charlie's twin brother, Donald (also played by Cage and one of the few fictional characters in the film). Donald has become obsessed with screenwriting and has fallen under the spell of Robert McKee, the king of formula script writing. Donald's enthusiasm for get-rich-quick screenwriting only adds to Charlie's frustrations. It doesn't help when Donald eventually sells his by-the-numbers script.

Inter cut with Charlie's struggles is the story of Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her adventures and budding infatuation with the orchid thief of her book, John Laroche (Chris Cooper). Laroche is a man spiraling downward after a tragic accident cost him his family. His current scheme is to hire Native Americans to help him pick orchids from a preserve in Florida that also happens to be ancestral Native American land.

Despite the fact that Laroche is, in many ways, a highly despicable and unpleasant man, Orlean finds herself inexplicably attracted to him.

Eventually, bordering on desperation, Charlie asks Donald to help him write the screenplay. It's at this point that the story begins to go from strange to surreal. You can almost see the switching of gears in the film from Charlie's emphasis on storytelling to Donald's obsession with formula. And yet, even when the film is playing by the standard Hollywood rules, there is nothing standard about the various twists and turns of events.

I watch hundreds of films a year and many of them are bland and forgettable. Even most of the good films tend to follow predictable plot lines. It is refreshing, then, to watch a film filled with genuine surprises. Adaptation is original and ingenious and Charlie Kaufman has hooked me. I want to see more by him.