In theaters

DOWN WITH LOVE, directed by Peyton Reed, written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, 96 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new romantic comedy, “Down with Love,” stars Renee Zellweger as Barbara Novak, a blonde puff of good cheer who leaves the family farm in Maine for the concrete cornrows of New York City.

There, in the film’s Technicolor dreamworld of 1962, she and her hot-to-trot editor, Vikki (Sarah Paulson), plan to publish Barbara’s new book, “Down with Love,” a potent pot of empowerment that – 41 years ago – would have generated enough steam to fuel a volcano.

Which it does.

The book, a prefeminist dictum divided into three steps, outlines how women can become just as successful as men. To do so, Barbara suggests they should forgo romantic love, focus on their careers and fulfill their sexual needs by either eating large amounts of chocolate or by limiting themselves to sex “a la carte.”

You know, as some men do.

Before you can say “make your own damn dinner,” the book has made Barbara a star. Soon, she’s everywhere, the biggest thing since the pill, a fact that catches the eye of Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), a roguish magazine writer who, with the encouragement of his nebbish editor, Peter (David Hyde Pierce), tries to fool Barbara into falling in love with him so he can expose her as a down-and-out fraud.

As directed by Peyton Reed (“Bring It On”) from a script by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, “Down with Love” wants more than anything to be as fluffy as the down filling in Michael Gordon’s “Pillow Talk,” the 1959 sex comedy that won Doris Day an Academy Award nomination and found her waxing cute with Rock Hudson on remote-controlled sofas that turned into beds.

“Love” features a similarly rigged sofa – and Tony Randall in a cameo – but in spite of straining to match the breezy success of “Pillow Talk,” it only occasionally manages to do so.

Unlike Todd Haynes’ “Far From Heaven,” which mirrored the films of Douglas Sirk while giving the genre a contemporary lift, and Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can,” which nailed the look and feel of the 1960s, “Love” is self-aware to the point of distraction. It’s a poseur trying to pull off a parody, winking so broadly at itself and at the audience, you fear it might develop a tick.

Complicating matters is the premise – it’s tough to be down with a movie that wants to warm you with deceit. It’s tougher still to like characters maneuvering at every turn to stab each other in the back. Hudson and Day were able to create a formidable sexual snap not just because they looked good together onscreen, but because both were fighting against something real – the sexual limitations of the times, Hudson’s closeted homosexuality, the sheen of virginal innocence Hollywood demanded from Day. They turned those roadblocks into tools.

Zellweger and McGregor, on the other hand, have only their dimpled cuteness to get them through this particular movie, which you sense, at least from their mugging, that they believe is enough. It isn’t.

Grade: C+

On video and DVD

ADAPTATION, directed by Spike Jonze, written by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman, 114 minutes, rated R.

Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation” begins in pitch darkness, over which comes a frantic voice that plunges the viewer straight into the panic of a man facing a daunting task he knows he can’t pull off.

The man is Charlie Kaufman, the neurotic real-life screenwriter of “Being John Malkovich,” which Jonze also directed, who was hired to turn Susan Orlean’s best-selling book, “The Orchid Thief,” into a movie.

It’s a task the emotionally distraught, self-deprecating Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) found nearly impossible to do. Still, Kaufman was hired to do the job and he had no choice but to press on, in spite of the apparent consequences to his health and sanity.

His resulting work didn’t become a literal screen adaptation of “The Orchid Thief,” as was planned. Instead, it became “Adaptation,” a film that chronicles Kaufman’s struggle to adapt the book while also being a movie based on the book. It’s a movie within a movie, and in this excellent film, by far one of 2002’s best, the two stories collide spectacularly.

Blending elements of fact and fiction, comedy and drama, the film blurs the lines between each before letting loose with an outrageous ending that culls some of last year’s biggest, smartest laughs as well as pure elements of horror.

What it becomes is exactly what Kaufman wanted to avoid when he began writing – a gross Hollywood farce punched-up for the masses with guns, blood, boobs and bullets. That it becomes just that is intentional and says plenty about our culture and the current state of filmmaking in Hollywood – though for reasons I’ll leave for you.

With Cage doing double duty as Charlie and also as his fictional twin brother, Donald; Meryl Streep as Orlean; and Chris Cooper in his Academy Award-winning role as John Laroche, what’s great about “Adaptation” is how it skirts formula while also courting it, pushing down new paths to offer something familiar that no one has seen before.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Adaptation ? A

Analyze That ? C-

Antwone Fisher ? A-

Catch Me if You Can ? A-

Comedian ? B+

Drumline ? B+

8 Mile ? C

8 Women ? B

The Emperor’s Club ? C+

Far From Heaven ? A

Femme Fatale ? C+

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ? B+

The Hot Chick ? C-

Igby Goes Down ? A

Lilo & Stitch ? B+

Minority Report ? A-

Moonlight Mile ? B

One Hour Photo ? A-

Rabbit Proof Fence ? A-

Real Women Have Curves ? A-

Red Dragon ? B+

The Ring ? C

The Road to Perdition ? A-

Secretary ? B+

Spirited Away ? A

Standing in the Shadows of Motown ? B+

Star Trek: Nemesis ? B-

Sweet Home Alabama ? B-

Swept Away ? D-

Swimfan ? C

The Transporter ? B-

Treasure Island ? B-

The 25th Hour ? A

Two Weeks Notice ? C-

White Oleander ? B+

The Wild Thornberries Movie ? B+