Today’s quick review: Adaptation. Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), a neurotic screenwriter, has just been handed a daunting challenge: to adapt Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) book The Orchid Thief for the screen. The book tells the true story of offbeat horticulturist John Laroche (Chris Cooper), but it offers minimal narrative structure to work with. As the pressure mounts, Charlie reluctantly turns to his twin brother Donald (Nicolas Cage) for help.
Adaptation is a quirky dramatic comedy from director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman. Adaptation has an unusual premise: the entire film is a pseudo-autobiographical account of its own creation. The film delves into the travails of the creative process, the tension between meaning and convention in art, and Kaufman’s own insecurities as a writer and a man, all while weaving in and out of Orlean’s book about orchids and an unusual man.
Adaptation holds a cerebral sort of appeal. Its comedy stems from irony, hypocrisy, and metafiction. The story plays a few neat tricks that are not obvious at first, rewarding viewers who keep a close eye on Charlie’s claims about the story and how they play out in the actual film. Adaptation tries to tackle lofty themes, such as the role of change in life. It’s only partially successful, but Kaufman’s failures become part of the plot in turn.
Apart from an intellectually stimulating script, Adaptation also has a fair degree of craftsmanship as a movie. The direction reflects the winding, peculiar, nonlinear nature of the story through a number of tricks, rotating between Kaufman’s life, Orlean’s, and Laroche’s. Nicolas Cage turns in a skilled performance and effectively loses himself in the twin roles of the intellectual, self-absorbed Charlie and his simple, outgoing brother Donald.
For all these qualities, Adaptation lacks the one thing it badly needs: emotional appeal. The trials of Charlie Kaufman are only sympathetic in a perfunctory sense. His insecurities are realistic but not endearing, while his writing troubles are brought on by a surfeit of artistic ambition. The movie is upfront about its protagonist’s flaws, even going so far as turning them into plot points, but it’s still left with a story that doesn’t resonate.
Simply put, Adaptation is too clever for its own good. Its attempts to think its way out of the problem only make it worse. Its jokes about being unable to tell a story are an ineffective substitute for an actual story, and its scattered, nonlinear, and self-referential plot never quite clicks. Adaptation is a clever movie in a lot of ways, but its cleverness makes it inaccessible. How much you get out of it will depend heavily on taste.
Try Adaptation when you’re in the mood for something cerebral, wryly amusing, and highly unconventional. Solid acting and direction give it the raw quality the film needs, while its intricate script has layers that are hard to unpack with just one viewing. Those who go into the film looking for sheer entertainment will be disappointed. Those expecting something tangled, well-crafted, and possibly meaningful will find it to be a rare treat.
For a more surreal dramatic comedy from the same writer and director, try Being John Malkovich. For a stylized dramatic comedy that pulls off something similar, try Birdman. For a more heartfelt dramatic comedy about the border between fact and fiction, try Stranger Than Fiction. For a darker, similarly cerebral comedy about the frustration of the writing process, try Barton Fink.
7.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a smart script and robust execution quality, hurt at an emotional level by some of the very points it’s trying to convey; your score will vary considerably.