Film Review: Adaptation (2002)
Charlie Kaufman has secured his place in history of 21ts Century Hollywood by delivering something beyond abilities of most of his colleagues – truly original scripts. On one particular occasion, he wrote scripts for not one but two extraordinary films which were, more or less, based on true stories and explored often blurring boundaries between fantasies and realities, all within one year. One was Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and another was Adaptation, 2002 black comedy directed by Spike Jonze, known as one of the quirkiest mainstream films to come from Hollywood two decades ago.
The film is based on The Orchid Thief, non-fiction book by reporter Susan Orlean, an author that was, just like Kaufman, on a roll and had another of her work, article “Life’s Swell”, adapted into big budget Hollywood film Blue Crush. The book originated as the series of articles Orlean wrote about John Laroque, eccentric horticulturist from Florida and his trouble with the law. Word “based on the book” shouldn’t be taken seriously, because the actual main character in the film is Charlie Kaufman himself, played by Nicolas Cage. The plot begins in 1998 when Kaufman works on his previous film Being John Malkovich (also directed by Jonze). Producer Valerie Thomas (played by Tilda Swindon) hires him to write adaptation of The Orchid Thief. Emotionally insecure, neurotic and perpetually depressed screenwriter struggles with the book because of its unconventional structure. Kaufman’s problems become even bigger due to presence of his (fictional) brother Donald (also played by Cage), a benevolent but clearly untalented man who nevertheless tries to follow Charlie’s footsteps and become a screenwriter. Donald has enrolled in a course held by famous screenwriting guru Robert McKee (played by Brian Cox) and tries to talk Charlie into doing the same. Charlie, on the other hand, decides to write script based less on a book itself and more on the author Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep). He tries to find an answer what she found so fascinating in the eccentric figure of John Laroque (played by Chris Cooper).
Simply by using characters that actually exist in real life (with exception of Donald, who nevertheless received credits) this black comedy represents one of the most original Hollywood films in past few decades. The originality could be seen in an unusual narrative structure that follows not one but a few plots set as “story within story” - an incident that inspired Susan Orleans to write a book, her socialising with Laroche, her struggle to write a book from everything etc. Kaufman used that “meta” structure to deal with various topics, ranging from simple midlife crisis to satirical reckoning with Hollywood and its unwritten “rules”. Spike Jonze, music video director who has worked with Kaufman on Being John Malkovich, wraps all those narrative and thematic strands into one coherent whole, while employing wide variety of styles – ranging from minimalist comedies like those by Woody Allen to big budget spectacle that involves dinosaurs, explosions and car chases. This approach works wonderfully well, except near the end, when the conclusion would be both too shocking and too baffling for large number of viewers, forced to watch Adaptation many times in order to discover what was Kaufman’s point.
On the other hand, the cast is simply wonderful. Nicolas Cage, seven years after his Oscar triumph with Leaving Las Vegas, shows that his undeniable talent can be best utilised in the films that are more ambitious in artistic sense. Like with most roles, Cage has invested a great effort which included deliberately gaining weight and depriving himself of almost all hair, making his double character looks almost cartoonish and un-Hollywood like. Same can be said of Meryl Streep, specialist for heavy serious roles, who enthusiastically took opportunity to play character that enjoys life (and was later awarded with Golden Globe for it). Chris Cooper, one of the most dependable character actors in Hollywood, has also invested a lot of effort in his role of eccentric Southerner and, among other things, lost weight and used difficult prosthetics to make his appearance as grotesque as possible. Brian Cox, another great character actor, provided his real life counterpart Robert McKee with best possible advertisement for screenwriting courses.
Adaptation could have been much better, but even in such flawed state it represents film light years above Hollywood average, a work that can not only entertain viewers but make them think. As such, it is one of the rare examples of contemporary cinema that could make repeated viewing recommendable.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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