Adaptation
Directed by: Spike Jonze
Written by: Charlie and Donald Kaufman
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper

In writing a review of Adaptation, I just may be attempting the impossible. This movie is both a challenge to watch, and a challenge to write about. But my goal here is not to pass any sort of judgement on this mindbending masterpiece; there is simply no benchmark for comparison, no critical viewpoint that can hope to do it justice. As far as movies go, Adaptation is in a league of its own. I aim only to try and give a brief synopsis, an idea of why this movie is so unique and what you can expect to get from it.

Let me start by asking this: how many movies have you seen recently where you actually knew the name of the screenwriter? Probably not too many, unless you count movies that were written and directed by the same person. In the film industry, the directors and actors are the big names that sell tickets, while the screenwriters get little to no credit for their hard work behind the scenes. Kind of silly when you realize that filmmaking is more or less the art of telling a story visually — without the writer there would be no story for the director to tell, and no clever dialogue to make the actors look cool. This is where Adaptation breaks down the traditional Hollywood barriers. With this movie, you have no choice but to take note of the screenwriter because, well, he wrote himself in as the movie’s main character.

That’s not the weird part though, after all, autobiographical stories are being written all the time. The weird thing is that Charlie Kaufman was originally hired to write an adaptation of a non-fiction book called “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean. The Orchid Thief is based on real life interviews and experiences that Susan had with a John Laroche, a botanical expert and obsessive flower collector in south Florida. However, Kaufman found himself at a loss to adapt the book for the screen, and so he turned to one of those silly tricks for relieving writer’s block… he began to write a screenplay about his own struggle to write the screenplay for The Orchid Thief. Sound confusing? It is, kind of. But as weird and unworkable as it seems, Kaufman actually manages to mold that concept into a comical yet beautiful portrait of life.

Not just anyone could pull off such a thing, but Charlie Kaufman also happens to be the man behind the bizarre, critically-acclaimed comedy Being John Malkovich. Knowing this, you may begin to understand how his mind could generate some of the ideas contained within Adaptation. You may also begin to understand why Columbia Pictures would be willing to pay good money to turn a script like this into a feature film.

Being John Malkovich, like Adaptation, is directed by Spike Jonze, and it is definitely the only movie that can really be compared to it. Adaptation is not quite as hilarious, but it is a much more ambitious film. And as strange as Malkovich is, Adaptation is way off the deep end. Some of the scenes in Adaptation actually take place on the set of Being John Malkovich (which may confuse people unfamiliar with Kaufman’s previous writing credit). The weird thing is, in these scenes you have Nicholas Cage playing Charlie Kaufman, who interacts with some of the real actors from that movie such as John Cusack and Catherine Keener, who play themselves. Then in other scenes there are Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper, playing the real-life versions of Susan Orlean and John Laroche as they exist in Orlean’s book. Oh, and did I mention Charlie Kaufman’s twin brother Donald, also a budding screenwriter, and also played by Nicholas Cage?

One of the cool things about Adaptation is how it successfully blurs fiction and real-life, which creates a lot of mystery and a lot of depth. A viewing of Adaptation conjures up a ton of questions, including: How much of this movie is based on the book? How much of the material is autobiographical of Charlie Kaufman? Does Kaufman really have a twin brother? What the heck does Susan Orlean think of this movie?

Nicholas Cage puts in one of his best performances ever with this movie. He doesn’t do comedies very often, but he really seems much better suited for these kinds of roles than for the big dumb action hero parts. He’s the kind of guy I just can’t take seriously, and in the exagerrated world of Adaptation, that is the perfect quality to have. Chris Cooper, who is probably best known for his role in American Beauty, plays Laroche as a cartoony southern redneck type who can make you laugh, and yet also make you admire him as well. Meryl Streep plays Susan Orlean as a soft-spoken and thoughtful New Yorker journalist in awe of Laroche’s determination.

A good portion of the movie focuses on Kaufman’s struggle to write the movie script, while also dealing with his low self-esteem and lack of social skills. He hasn’t met Susan Orlean before, but he starts to become infatuated with her as he reads her book. He tries to meet with her to help with the screenwriting process, but he is too nervous and he chickens out. While this is going on, his twin brother is trying to write a movie script of his own, which is nothing more than laughably cliched Hollywood tripe. Interspersed throughout this are re-enactments of scenes directly from The Orchid Thief. By the end of the movie, both worlds collide and lead to a pretty outrageous climax.

Adaptation explores a lot of what goes into writing a movie; this aspect may bore some people, but it is what allows the movie to have such a clever sense of humour. In dissecting the process of writing, Kaufman manages to poke fun at himself, as well as Hollywood filmmaking conventions, but he also brings out some interesting ideas and truths about life in general. The recursive layers of symbolism and self-reflective irony are so thick that you probably can’t hope to absorb all of it in one viewing. In fact, there are probably many double meanings hidden in this movie that Kaufman himself didn’t even intend.

After having explained all of this, you can clearly see that this is one hell of an original movie. It’s also not one that will be easily digested by the average moviegoer. It’s one of those movies where you only get out of it what you put into it, and to give it a simple “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” is somewhat meaningless. I think I saw the most walkouts ever during this film, which is kind of frustrating, and yet at the same time, reassuring. The best movies are ones that push the limits of what a movie is, and Adaptation accomplishes this utterly and completely. To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing out there quite like Adaptation, and that is one good reason why you should see it. The other reason is that it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. — Sean

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