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Adaptation

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When Nicolas Cage amazed us in Adaptation@reviewzzz565d
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  1. ›Film Review: Adaptation (2002)@drax1028d

    (source: tmdb.org)

    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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  2. ›Charlie Kaufman Adaptation (2002)@amirtheawesome11550d

    image.png Image source

    Before I start, I need to point out that Charlie Kaufman actually inserted himself not only as one character but as two, Charlie and Donald Kaufman, twin brothers played by Nicolas Cage. It is very important that everyone realizes this before we go in. This applies to many of the main characters as well.

    To make it clear, in the film synopsis, Charlie will only be mentioned as the fictional character in the movie. While, in the parts after that, I will be talking about him as the actual person and screenwriter.

    Film Synopsis

    The movie is a meta-comedy and drama with a long meditation of longing, obsession, and passion. It also deals with how thin the lines are between those three words.

    Charlie Kaufman is a screenwriter tasked with the job of adapting Susan Orlean's book "The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession". A real-life book that the real screenwriter of this movie was tasked with adapting. Confused and overwhelmed by the task, Charlie Kaufman sets his attempt to get the job done while also dealing with his brother, Donald Kaufman, and his passion for screenwriting.

    At the same time, we visit Susan Orlean (The character based on the real Susan Orlean and played by Meryl Streep) while dealing with her own problems as she was writing the book. We go through her journey while interviewing and seeking to find the rare Orchid flower with horticulturist John Laroche.

    What I Liked About The Movie

    Much like other Kaufman films, the characters are hard roles to play. To see Nicolas Cage playing twin brothers in long medium shots is nothing short of fantastic. The movie doesn't resort to quick cuts to make that easier, which makes it all the more impressive. This role might actually be Nicolas Cage's best-ever portrayal.

    The performance praise goes to the rest of the cast as well with Meryl Streep obviously giving a great performance and Chris Cooper as well.

    The story, while seemingly confusing in writing isn't confusing at all. Kaufman really managed to put together the mess of writing the movie into a cohesive smooth process.

    The movie is based on the great book I mentioned above. The book itself, while being a great read, it doesn't translate into a movie. Kaufman managed to bring the meaning of the book, mainly longing, obsession, and passion as we mentioned into this meta-comedy movie. Saying it isn't enough, but, the process of doing that is almost impossible.

    The meta part of the movie addresses writing mistakes and processes which shows how a passion can be turned into an obsession in the case of Kaufman and how longing turns into a passion in the case of Susan Orlean, both in the cases of the characters as well as the actual people.

    The pacing of the movie is great, you can see the disintegration of each character into a chaotic mess in chasing their obsession and how the result can be overwhelming.

    The movie goes from factual to fictional in a rather seamless way so you're able to recognize what's factual and what's fictional easily in case you are aware of the real people resembled in the movie.

    What I Didn't Like About The Movie

    Honestly, from this movie on, with the exception of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, I won't have a lot of negatives to say.

    In this movie, there might be only one. The movie is too self-reflexive. It is almost too meta. It doesn't affect the meaning or the theme of the book so much, however, picking this as the meta aspect to tell the story doesn't offer much to the thing they're creating a meta for.

    Simply put, the movie is calling too much attention to itself without justifying that attention aside from the theme.

    In Conclusion

    The themes of the movie are longing, obsession, and passion, which are derived from the book are fulfilled beautifully. However, despite the brilliant work of turning the book into a movie, the themes aren't deep enough. Still, it provides an amazing journey despite not justifying taking it.

    My rating: 8.5/10

    The movie will always be enjoyable, even when rewatching it.

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  3. ›Adaptation (2002) Movie Review - 2 Nicolas Cages + 1 Good Movie = Good God Dang Movie@cyberdemon5311617d
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  4. ›Adaptation (2002) - A Non "Pure Cinema" Opening@lionsuit2948d

    IMG_20180603_003525.jpg

    This film is awesome on so many fronts. Beautiful in tone, character, honesty in question, truth in creative journey.

    IMG_20180602_210247.jpg

    Charlie Kaufman writes an amazing script based on Susan Orlean's book, and Spike Jonze directs so well.

    One of the most striking and exciting parts of the film is seeing Kaufman's overal mastery of the form, his understanding of how to get all the rule-thumping screenwriter police to explode or leave the theater right away.

    Adaptation_4.jpg

    This ruthless opening--which in the script is a one page monologue over blackness, in direct opposition to Hitchcock's "Pure Cinema"--is the perfect content and delivery for a film and character journey through/about the trials of balancing art, truth, creativity, with engaging, commercial, roller coaster filmmaking.

    IMG_20180602_211250.jpg

    At the start of the film, the main character is fighting, and by the end he is accepting and uniting.

    That fight is shown perfectly in the opening.

    Adaptation 1.jpg

    Great movie. Top ten all time favorite personally. Be well. http://www.LionSuit.com

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