Through Hollywood Video's MVP program, Viks and I have been catching up on movies that we missed in the theater, did not have time to watch before, overlooked, etc. My favorite, uncovered gem recently has been the film, Adaptation. Spike Jonze directed this with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. I've become a huge fan of Charlie Kaufman through his work on Being John Malkovich and Enternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. As with all of Kaufman's works I have seen so far, the plot is unconventional but it is also imaginative, well written and clever enough to keep you engaged.
Nicolas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, the real-life screenwriter who has been hired to write the movie script for Susan Orlean's best selling novel, "The Orchid Thief." but throughout the film Charlie struggles with writer's block. In the movie, Charlie is also insecure, sweats profusely when he's nervous and has enormous difficulty in forming relationships with women. In a dual role, Cage also plays Charlie's twin brother, Donald, who is confidently writing a screenplay of his own. Donald's screenplay is formulaic and derivative..basically a POS...but he manages to sell it for a ton of money. In addition, we see Donald having much more success in the love dept. Throughout the movie, there are vignettes with Meryl Streep, who plays the real life Susan Orlean, and in the movie, Susan is portrayed as a depressed journalist who longs for passion in her life. She does a piece for the New Yorker on John Laroche (Chris Cooper) a rascally, toothless, orchid thief. Susan expands her piece into a novel, "The Orchid Thief." Through her fact finding, she comes to understand John and the two form an unlikely connection. Meanwhile, Charlie proceeds to write a screenplay about his inability to write a screenplay and later seeks out Susan.. paths collide.
Being a Hollywood release, the irony here is that Jonze and Kaufman seem to be taking a jab at Hollywood / Pop culture by saying that to succeed & survive in this environment one must adapt to the wishes of the greater masses and that includes formulaic, derivative pulp. On the other hand, through Donald's character, the film also seems to be saying that you sometimes do need mainstream elements for a film to work. Adaptation is also a movie that explores passion, finding love and having the courage to look beyond preconcieved notions (e.g. Mckee screenwriting seminar). Adaptation is refeshing, genuinely funny, confusing, tender, beautifully acted, and one of the most intriguing films that I have seen in a long time.
Laroche: "What's so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There's a certain orchid look exactly like a certain insect so the insect is drawn to this flower, its double, its soul mate, and wants nothing more than to make love to it. And after the insect flies off, spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it. And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. I mean, how could they know that because of their little dance the world lives? But it does. By simply doing what they're designed to do, something large and magnificent happens. In this sense they show us how to live - how the only barometer you have is your heart. How, when you spot your flower, you can't let anything get in your way. "
