|  Adaptation
is an odd, hilarious, and endlessly twisty movie. It's about
a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman and his attempt to
adapt a book into a movie. He couldn't do it, so he wrote
Adaptation. It's about adapting the book, yet I still have
told you hardly anything about it. It's bizarre, audacious,
self-referential, and I've never seen anything quite like
it.
In the beginning a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman, who
is quite successful after writing the script to 1999's "Being
John Malkovich" is hired to adapt Susan Orlean's nonfiction
bestseller "The Orchid Thief", which is about
a man named John Laroche from Florida who had been arrested
for taking endangered orchids out of state wildlife preserves.
He uses the defense that he is a consultant for American
Indians, so he is allowed to legally poach orchids and pursue
his obsession with the beautiful flowers.
It's Kaufman's job to turn this into a movie. He wants to
avoid the typical Hollywood conventions of sex, drugs, guns,
car chases and the like. He wants to beautify life and orchids
in his screenplay. Through his intense labors to get something
written he realizes that it's a good book, but is it a movie?
Kaufman has some sporadic ideas, but none really go anywhere
or can be made into a coherent story. Suddenly, he has some
inspiration and begins to write. With disgust he remarks
to his brother, "I've written myself into my screenplay."
Charlie is often accompanied by his brother, Donald. Donald
is trying to do everything Charlie wants to avoid. He wants
to write a Hollywood screenplay and get rich, striving for
none of Charlie's artistic integrity. He encourages Charlie
to attend a weekend seminar of Robert McKee's, who tells
students to copy the classics, and lectures him on McKee's
10 commandments of screenwriting.
Charlie and Donald Kaufman are played by Nicolas Cage in
an astounding performance. He plays Charlie Kaufman with
his artistic vision and overwhelming insecurities as well
as Donald with his confidence and commercialism. They look
exactly alike, yet Cage breathes such life and distinction
into their personalities you always know who you're looking
at. This movie isn't all Cage, however. It has great (and
Golden Globe winning) supporting performances. Meryl Streep
is orchid journalist Susan Orlean; a woman in repulsion
and fascination with orchid thief John Laroche, as well
as someone with great admiration for the beauty and rarity
of orchids. And Chris Cooper is an excellent stringy haired,
missing tooth bum with his quirky obsessions.
Adaptation has possibly the oddest, most brilliant, and
most mind boggling script ever. It twists, it turns, and
many things take on whole new levels and dimensions due
to the logical bends it takes. It's all amazingly clever.
The film is also acutely aware of its own existence which
adds a whole new take on what happens. It also manages to
bend reality in the process. Adaptation takes interesting
and clever logical twists and pushes them as for as they
can go.
Adaptation is also a combination of real life and fiction.
Some characters are real and played by themselves, such
as Catherine Keener, Donald's girlfriend. Some are real
people played by actors, such as Charlie Kaufman, Robert
McKee, and Susan Orlean. Some simply aren't real, such as
Donald Kaufman. As testament to how for the film pushes
this distortion of reality and fiction, the script is credited
to both Charlie and Donald Kaufman, even Donald Kaufman
doesn't exist!
This movie is also extremely funny. It's that rare kind
of humor that doesn't come from irony, the absurd, or the
situation, but rather it comes from the personalities of
its characters. Charlie's inner monologue, which plays throughout,
is really hilarious. It reveals his self-loathing and insecure
attitude, and how he thinks about the world. His self doubt
and attitudes are great. "My leg hurts…maybe
it's cancer," or his ramblings about his sweating and
receding harline are very funny.
Anyone who has tried to write something but had nothing
come can identify with Charlie. It's an excellent evocation
of artistic creation. There are many moments in the film
where he stares at a blank page, and then tears it up in
disgust or throws it away. Or he'll write something and
just can't piece his ideas together. The creative process
is depicted clearly and with a sense of humor.
Adaptation is one of the most savage critiques of Hollywood
formulas in some time. Not since Robert Altman's "The
Player" have formulas been depicted with such contempt.
Well, according to Donald, "Mom said it was psychologically
taut."
The last half hour is a great, great, great way to end the
movie. It wraps everything up in a way you would never expect.
It's really the only way it could end. It's a wonderful,
multilayered joke that works on so many levels.
Adaptation is a bizarre, fun and original journey for both
emotions and the mind. It has great dialogue, excellent
characters, and an amazing script. It's also fun. I left
the theater grinning from ear to ear. After seeing Adaptation,
you'll realize just how boring other movies are.
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