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Here comes a breath of fresh cinematic air. Scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) has come up with an original idea that involves Meryl Streep in a swamp and Chris Cooper with no front teeth. This is the type of film that you must sit through without going out for popcorn. If you do, you will miss something vital. The whole plot is about a real nonfiction book by Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep) called "The Orchid Thief." Her book concerns the exploits of John Laroche (Chris Cooper) who hunts rare orchids in the Florida swamp and sells them to collectors. The book is also about Orlean's personal journey as she wrote the book and thus the scene is set for a film "adaptation." Who is chosen to do it? Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage). In the movie (reel life and not real life) Kaufman has a twin brother, Donald. Charlie is losing his hair, shy to the point of backward, and suffering from writer's block. Donald is out-going and cheery and has no trouble cranking out an action screenplay that sells for over a million dollars. Each envies the other. As the film progresses, we see that Charlie must "adapt" himself to writing again. Streep and Cooper's characters also are adapting to stresses in their lives. Everyone's paths cross at a crucial point.

Who would know that orchids could be so interesting? To listen to Chris Cooper describe them is to listen to the history of the world in one
root. Cooper, by the way, just may get an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a man who goes from one obsession to another. Streep, also, may hear Oscar knocking in her depiction of an unhappy writer who thinks the grass is greener on the other side. My favorite scene is the first time she gets in a van with Cooper. She looks around the inside of this lived-in wheeled container like a hotel manager with a checklist. 

Cage does double duty in two roles, but the make-up on him is overdone. This detracts from the Charlie who is painfully shy and the Donald who is painfully overweight. Cage's best parts are when he is set up to meet Streep but can't do it. You want to reach toward the screen and give him that push. Other Hollywood actors walk through the film in cameos, such as John Cusack and Catherine Keener.

Adaptation harkens to Darwin and his theory of survival. Change is constant and everywhere. Life is forward motion and if you can't keep
the pace, you fall by the wayside. This is not a treadmill but a highway of life. Charlie Kaufman has written a screenplay (Oscar beckoning?) about change that is innovative. Film discussion groups will devote hours of talk about this film. And who said there was nothing new under the sun?

Copyright 2002 Marie Asner
Submitted 12/23/02

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect heading into Adaptation. I knew it was a clever comedy involving screenwriting, but that was all I knew. Having now seen the movie, a more accurate description would be a brilliant screenplay about--well--a brilliant screenplay. If you're confused, hopefully the next few paragraphs will clarify the basics of the story.

Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, a struggling fat, bald, middle-aged screenwriter who is constantly questioning himself. Kaufman's latest project is a screenplay based on the novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The only problem is that Kaufman wants to write a script that is uncorrupted by Hollywood, which is the exact opposite of the screenplay his twin brother Donald (also played by Nicolas Cage) is writing. As Kaufman bumbles along, the movie is filled with flashbacks to three years prior when Susan (Meryl Streep) was writing the novel which was based on a true story. As such, Susan has flashbacks to when she met John Laroche (Chris Cooper), who brought about the ideas in her novel.

As the story progresses it becomes apparent that Charlie Kaufman needs to meet Susan. However, he is terrified to--and rightly so, as we later discover. The movie ultimately becomes one of Kaufman facing his fears, although this theme is part of an even greater context. That context is adaptation. Unfortunately, this adaptation is linked to evolution (at least in the minds of the creators of the movie), and thus we get a tricky bit of worldview thrown in. If the audience can look past this idea, however, there's an incredible movie below the surface.

The movie is full of thoughts from Susan in her book that make the audience want to find the novel and read it. Her writing is so honest and introspective. When we learn that Susan isn't who she seems to be and that she has adapted to become someone else entirely, we are faced with the harsh reality that adaptation is not always an easy thing.

This theme of adaptation is twofold. It comes as revealed in the lives of the characters, but it also comes quite literally as the product of Charlie Kaufman trying to adapt The Orchid Thief. Kaufman realizes as he writes that he cannot possibly tell the story without including himself in it. Thus what we ultimately have with Adaptation is a movie about a guy writing a movie based on a novel about a guy who hunted orchids, when in reality his screenplay is the movie we are actually watching. If it sounds confusing, it is. But it's a beautiful kind of confusing. Add to that the fact that Adaptation was written by none other than Charlie Kaufman. Furthermore, add to that the fact that Adaptation is based on The Orchid Thief which was written by Susan Orlean. This leaves the question: is Adaptation a true story?

Given the story within a story within a story within a story context of Adaptation, it should come as no surprise that the movie can be very funny. It walks a rare line of taking itself seriously, yet also making fun of itself. One of the comical highlights of the film comes when Charlie visits a screenwriting seminar. There the speaker says things contradicting the script of Adaptation itself. He says "God help you if you have to use voice-overs to convey your characters thoughts." Meanwhile, Charlie's thoughts have been voiced over during the whole movie. In another hilarious moment of self-deprecating humor, the speaker accuses Charlie of "wasting my two precious hours with your movie."

I don't think I speak just for myself when I say that two hours spent watching Adaptation turn out to be two hours very well spent.

Trae Cadenhead 1/29/2003