Summary
A writer struggles to complete a screenplay which is based on a book which was based on an article which was based on an incident which had transcendental effect on the author.
My Thoughts
“Adaptation” is one of those rare films that I will call perfect. Everything about it is outstanding. The writing? Charlie Kaufman. The acting? Cage, Streep, Cooper. The directing? Spike Jonze. Literally and all star team al playing at the top of their game.
For purposes of this review I’d like to focus on the inventive plot by Kaufman and the brilliant acting of Nicolas Cage because without these two working in tandem the film would simply fall apart. The film is a nesting doll of ideas and plots that makes “Inception” look like a straightforward children’s bedtime story.
The film focuses on Charlie (Nicolas Cage, “Leaving Las Vegas”), a successful genius screenwriter who lives with his brother Donald, a simpleton and failure at almost everything he does who also looks up to Charlie immensely, wanting to be a writer like he is. Charlie has been struggling with his latest writing project, an adaptation of a book called “The Orchid Thief” which he found extremely moving. He wants the film to be a tribute to the writer of the book, Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep, “The Post”), but he is struggling to capture the sublime feeling that the book evoked. Meanwhile his brother is going to Robert McKee (Brian Cox, “The Autopsy of Jane Doe”) writing courses and churning out a screenplay that while ridiculous and low brow, seems quite popular with anyone who reads it.
I won’t go any further to avoid spoiling the plot but the film ends up being about the pursuit of something unattainable. For different characters, that unattainable thing is different and their reactions to that discovery are different. It is a film which especially resonated with me as a writer, artists, and clinically depressed individual struggling to not begrudge people their success even as I toil in relative obscurity.
One of the most brilliant ways that this film ends up transcending its own medium is the way that it plays with reality and unreality. Charlie Kaufman (the real person) made himself a character (played by Nic Cage) in his own film therefore the Nic Cage character does the same thing. Susan Orlean is a real person, McKee is a real person, yet Donald Kaufman is not. The film blends what is real with what is not to create a miasma that is easy to get lost in, just as self reflection can be.
The end of the movie takes some startling turns and feels very out of character with the first two acts but even that is brilliant because of what it says about art and for whom we are creating. It may be jarring but I find myself asking why that is and what that says about my attitudes toward that style and what others may find in it.
One of the most interesting way that this film examines those concepts is through the characters Charlie and Donald. Donald seems to be the personification of everything that Charlie doesn’t want to put in his films yet without his insight he never seems to be able to move forward with his idea, which essentially, is to have nothing happen. It is the ultimate in navel gazing to write yourself into your own art and even more so to invent a character who is your twin but capable of being everything that you are not.
In so creating these stand in characters for himself, Kaufman has found a way to bring the film out of the screen and into real life. He has created a transcendent moment in which the audience member sits and realizes the ways that they overanalyze themselves, get lost in the search for meaning and happiness, and self sabotage the same things they are looking for but don’t realize they have complete control over.
Films that are able to do this are truly treasures of cinema and the most interesting to me. They are the films that I want to watch over and over. They do more than titillate my love of great story, well done violent effects, or flashy cgi. Films like this one seem to almost respond to something my soul has been saying for years. I find a sense of belonging with the filmmaker who has seen something sweeping and meaningful. They have, like the character Kaufman, felt a movement of their spirit and ached to share that movement with their fellow humanity. At least in my case, he has succeeded.
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