Adaptation

[locke]

Finishing off November with another writing related film is Adaptation.

Adaptation is an adaptation of The Orchid Thief an unadaptable book expanded from a New Yorker article about a Florida Orchid Thief. Charlie Kaufman writes himself into the screenplay and in the process writes a screenplay about writing a screenplay.

That means we get full bore Kaufman's insecurities, doubts, frustrations and duplicitous-ness of the creative process. For all that it is somewhat hard to watch it is also more than a little hilarious.

At the same time, Kaufman works in a meta theme about the process of how we humans adapt to changing circumstances--that so many of our problems can be traced to our resistance to and fear of change. Someone like Kaufman doesn't live moment to moment. He is always setting himself apart, observing, analyzing and second guessing himself so worried about what others will think of him that he's practically paralyzed from acting at all, Kaufman, as portrayed here, can't even adapt to a simple face to face conversation whether it's with a woman he's known for what we suppose to be a long time, his agent, his producer or just a waitress in a cafe. The one person Kaufman can communicate with is his twin Donald, an apparition and doppelganger that Kaufman creates for the movie to be everything he is not to provide the contrast that illuminates his own character. Donald is a person who doesn't care, who is constantly living in the moment, constantly adapting to the situation. to a degree this makes him the sort of person that lies all the time (not that Charlie is any paragon of truthfulness) because he's always accommodating himself to the situation at hand to be agreeable and enjoy himself.

at the same time we have the parallel narrative of the actual orchid thief book, with Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper playing journalist Susan Orlean and orchid thief/horticulturalist John Larouche. Other than the initial theft that inspired the initial story these are quite boring if somewhat fascinating people, and as the film goes on Kaufman embellishes more and more, making their story more and more hollywood, less and less real and more improbable until it gets to the point that fantasy takes completely over and the kaufman writing the screenplay of the characters meets his own characters as Kaufmann completes the process of literally writing himself into his own story.

To a degree, the preposterous nature of this reminds of Duck Amuck, but it is wholly original for all that it is outlandishly improbable as a workable movie.

and I don't think the movie really works. it's tough to watch the first hour or so, individual scenes are interesting, but there's an incoherent element to it a sort of flailing as we experience a story that is ultimately directionless and as Kaufman criticizes himself "solipsistic." and this is the part of the movie I find too painful and personal to really be able to engage in. I see myself in a lot of these scenes of Kaufman's self doubt but ultimately I strongly resist it, repulsed--to a degree--to see something like that on the screen, there's a raw nakedness to it that's embarrassing. These are the things we do not talk about. the taboo. the mocking that others do of us but we prefer not to know. it's that element of mockery and caricature of the insecure artist/writer that gets to me here. I stopped and started the film several times during this first half--and I've seen the film before! But as we get to the realization midway where the Kaufman in the movie starts writing himself into the movie the film picks up again. And as it moves away from the scrutiny of Kaufman's failings as a person interacting with the world and into the fantasy of him entering into the story he's writing that the film begins to become occasionally brilliant. Especially impressive is the way that Kaufman incorporates so many cliche tropes and breaks rules of 'good' screen writing with aplomb. There's an intense energy and tongue in cheek tone that makes all of that work in a way that the self-flagellation of the first half didn't work. It also makes you realize how important it is to have a protagonist that has drive or motivation, because the meandering first half's frustrations only confirm the ludicrousness of his artistic pretensions.

Yet at the same time it is his adherence to his own artistic pretensions that allows the film to work at all, so in a very fun way the film creates a critical mobius strip that makes it impossible for a critic to attack one part of the film because if you follow the line of attack you'll only find out you've bitten yourself in the ass with your petty attempts to contain Kaufman's work here. And that truly is something brilliant, that the film is a writer pretty much triumphing over the critics and creating a truly bulletproof work. And he gets to be a hero in this screenplay that does this too. That's pretty damn cool.

[Valentine]

How do I love Charlie Kaufman? Let me count the ways..
Adaption is a brilliant, quirky, and engaging film. Nicholas Cage is amazing - which is a phrase I don't often get the chance to utter. Merryl Streep is Meryll Streep - has this woman ever done anything terrible? (I haven't seen Mamma Mia, so it's possible, I suppose )
Spike Jonze is amazing, and works with Kaufman's scripts insanely well. Tilda Swinton is one of the most under-rated actresses in Hollywood, in my opinion. I always love her. And Chris Cooper gives one of the best performances of his life.
All in all, an excellent movie.