Adaptation is about a woman, Susan Orlean, who writes an article for The New Yorker based on her investigative reporting of a beatnik horticulturalist named Tom Laroche. Tom is obsessed with Orchids, and finds ways around laws and other annoying detriments prohibiting his collection for his plans of a sanctuary for these flowers. The article on Laroche is expanded to a book, and the book is optioned for a screenplay. The producers call Charlie Kaufman (the character), who has just finished Being John Malkovich, to adapt the book to the screen. Charlie Kaufman (the character) then creates a screenplay about the process of writing and the dramatic events that occur when Charlie does his own investigating into the outcome of Susan and Tom.
This movie is, therefore, a glimpse into the world of Charlie Kaufman, spotlighting the writer's frustration, artistic goals, and personal social problems. While Cage does a great job of playing both Charlie and Donald Kaufman as two separate people with completely different personalities, the characters themselves are rather grotesque stereotypes of two types of "writer". Charlie the educated, the anxious, has to be the original and fresh type of writer whose personal life is vexed by these characteristics. Donald is the jock who has no problems with women, social anxiety, and writing blockbuster films that make a mockery of the elements of writing an educated screenplay. The relationship between these two brothers is unconditionally loving and tiresome, and serves no other purpose than to show Charlie's anxiety as being unnecessary and his identity as a writer as a far cry from the rest of ‘normal' individuals in society.
Meryl Streep offers some relief from the stereotypes of the script in her character of Susan Orlean, who begins as a caged and unhappy Manhattan writer and has personal break throughs during her time away from her husband and conventional society. The magic moments are created only through her acting, though. Any moments of true brilliance that are accompanied with dialogue end up trite with a moral. Chris Cooper did a fantastic job as Laroche, believable in every scene and giving his characters both the excitement for life and a deep melancholy that spurs his obsessive orchid hunting.
The themes of this film all boil down to one icon, the orchid. There are scenes in this movie that took my breath away with the emotional intensity and real human dilemma, but at the end of each one came at least two to three lines thwacking this orchid theme/moral over your head.
Here are a few. (1) The orchid is created in such a way that it draws its double (soul mate) insect to itself to pollinate. The two won't understand the significance of their lovemaking, but they are propagating a rare species. (2) When you spot your flower (passion), you can't let anyone get in your way. (3) The desire to want something as passionately as John Larouche hunts for his orchids. (4) Orchids=people. Plants are mutable. Adaptation is necessary. Evolution is Adaptation to change. (5) Change is not a choice, it is a constant. (6) You are what you love, not what loves you.
Despite these syrupy concoctions tacked onto scenes to give it overall themes, there were inventive ways of presenting the deconstructionist, writer writing a screenplay about a writer writing a screenplay, dilemma. The audience gets to see Charlie on the set at
Being John Malkovich, as well as the stars taking a break from working on it. The transformation of Streep and Cooper's characters was a journey and well acted, and the entertaining twists at the end helped me to forget the dilemmas of Charlie Kaufman. This could have been a startlingly innovative movie, but tripped a bit trying to make sense of its themes, to all those who watch
Adaptation. It's worth seeing, but may be more impressive for a $3.50 rental fee than a $10 movie ticket.
