Adaptation [MA]

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is working on a new film, an adaptation of a book called ‘The Orchard Thief’ based on true events and an article in the New Yorker. But he’s struggling, he knows just what he wants to achieve, but he can’t quite bring it to fruition. Meanwhile, his twin brother Donald is writing a clichéd thriller script and gaining a lot of praise, much to Charlie’s dissatisfaction. Charlie suddenly has the epiphany to write about life and so he inserts himself into the script. It’s a brilliant idea, but once written in, Charlie’s fiction and reality start to fuse together and overlap in unexpected and shocking ways. 

Quite possibly the greatest use of metafiction EVER, Adaptation, a title that makes multiple play on the word as the adaptation of a book to screenplay and the physical adaptation of plants and organisms, comes from the keen and penetrating minds of the creators of Being John Malkovich. By no means as disturbing and weird as the later, this movie is a just a wondrous exhibition of art imitating life and, a bit like The Player, it’s an expose on the industry: its makeup, its flaws, and the attitudes of those within it. Seriously, this is a most incredible movie, made all the more so by its clever writing, its humour, and its really unexpected ending. 

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is working on a new film, an adaptation of a book called ‘The Orchard Thief’ based on true events and an article in the New Yorker. But he’s struggling, he knows just what he wants to achieve, but he can’t quite bring it to fruition. Meanwhile, his twin brother Donald is writing a clichéd thriller script and gaining a lot of praise, much to Charlie’s dissatisfaction. Charlie suddenly has the epiphany to write about life and so he inserts himself into the script. It’s a brilliant idea, but once written in, Charlie’s fiction and reality start to fuse together and overlap in unexpected and shocking ways. 

What makes this movie all the more brilliant is the trivial fun-facts in its back-story. A project that Charlie Kaufman, who is a real person and screenwriter for those who don’t know, began writing during the production of Being John Malkovich. The fact that the film opens with the Kaufman character on the set of the film with the real John Cusak, the real Katherine Keener, and the real John Malkovich, is the first metafictive gem in this fruitful mine. Pretty much what you see on screen was actually happening in real life, which makes this movie the ultimate metafictive experience. With all the characters being real people, the screenplay for this movie was a hot potato being thrown in all directions: dropped by some and held onto by others. The most entertaining thing about the movie is the fact that Kaufman split himself into two characters, creating his twin brother Donald whom he actually gives writing credit to on the bill. What can be taken from the back of all this is the fact that Adaptation is a movie that is not only about art imitating life, but a film that is its story. Reality and fiction fuse together so much so that the difference cannot be distinguished and the whole thing is just fucking BRILLIANT! 

Needless to say that the writing is immensely clever, the script is biting, heartfelt, intelligent, and a fantastic comment on the industry including not-so-subtle jabs at the so-called ‘writing gurus’ like McKee. It deliberately goes against ‘conventions’ and achieves this fantastic insight, movement, and humour. It’s an experience more than a screenplay. 

All the performances are wondrous from Nicholas Cage as both Charlie and Donald, to Meryl Streep as the deeply unhappy journalist on whose work the film is based, and Chris Cooper as the ‘orchard thief’ won the Academy Award in 2002 for Best Supporting actor. I can’t really put into words how fantastic everything about this is, you’ll just have to run down to your local Blockbuster and grab yourself a copy. SERIOUSLY, DO IT NOW! 

Starring Tilda Swinton, Jay Tavare, Cara Seymour, Doug Jones, Roger Willie, Jim Beaver, Curtis Hanson, Judy Greer, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Adaptation is a phenomenally clever and just ingenious movie in every way filled with action, drama, jealously, melancholy, change, growth, and biting comedy. It’s seriously a work of absolute art and I highly recommend it!