"Adaptation" (2002) - Movie Review

I can only imagine fathoming to express the true sensation of “Adaptation”. It made more sense to watch it right after “Being John Malkovich”. It is right due to the fact that the reference of it and appreciating Kauffman for it made possible to associate with this more closer which is another step towards perfection and beyond. I can say that any one has the same thought as Charlie Kauffman. They have the same thought of self conscious getting them every minute, their physical stature and the way of carrying them. They are aware every now and then. They get the thoughts of sleeping with some one, being a pervert and condescending. But what every one cannot do is the way to put it as a screenplay. It is the skill mastered by Charlie and his fictitious brother Donald Kauffman to come up with a screenplay like this.

The film starts off with Charlie (Nicolas Cage) is in the middle of crisis about his existence. He is circled by the Hollywood celebrities who cannot identify him. It is because he is shy and introvert. He is lost in the world where he stepped into. He is respected for his brilliance. This brilliance is not getting transformed as a self appreciating content human. He is constantly getting reminded by his mind. Yes, it is his mind and he as a separate one, I would say. It is my interpretation of his detachment from himself. When one is so detached from being him, there is no surprise he is detached from every one else. The only one of course he could walk over is his brother, Donald (Nicolas Cage). He feels unusually big in front of him. He constantly criticizes his idea. He feels he is a sell out. Charlie sees him as the typical Hollywood screen writer who is ready to bend the realism for entertainment.

Charlie wants to move away from the shadows of his previous movie, “Being John Malkovich”. He wants to write a simple and straightforward screenplay. Nothing circling around but a clean linear progression of an unusual concept. He decides to adapt the book of Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep). The book is about her experience with John Laroche (Chris Cooper) who is a passionate person. He is passionate about Orchids, for time being. Charlie wants to adapt it to screen. The problem is how to adapt a story on flowers on to screen? It is tough to do that. The movie is the process of this adaptation. Truly the title getting justified.

I have not mentioned much or none at all about the director Spike Jonze in my review of his film, “Being John Malkovich”. Charlie engulfed the whole movie with his brilliance in it. He does the same here but screening it, is another form of brilliance. Exactly bringing out the frank imagination of one’s mind is complex. Jonze stays loyal to the script. I can say this, because the movie is the script being narrated line by line. It is an authentication of it. How it would be, if some one reads out their screenplay as their life in a movie. It gives weird sensation of seeing oneself in a mirror. But the mirror is real and imaginative at the same time. The movie is real and the imagination of it being written is the mirror of life. The life of Charlie Kauffman and his brother Donald who simultaneously working on their project ending up mingling their work into one form of adaptation. The film does not say it explicitly, but we feel it.

The film is not in depth about how character is or how it behaves. It is about the challenge of a screenwriter. When I think about writing a story/screenplay, I wanted to take the real events of my life. But the difference will be that I will make some one else speak those lines. I think I can take a general stand point on this and say that most of the writers tend to do that. Some might indulge them, but some one as a side kick. They will not openly declare them as a character with constantly thinking and losing them. Even if they do that, the self indulgence would shadow the creativity. Balancing it in between the calculated indulgence and showcasing the other characters is impossible. Kauffman’s does that in “Adaptation”.

The movie as I said earlier does not dwell too much in to understanding the character till the near end. It approaches that point in latter stage in a blatant way. At that point, we know it is the influence of Donald’s Hollywood ending. That is sheer execution of beauty in it. Allowing the story to be influenced by some one else. And the some one else is fictitious in real world. Wow !

When the screenplay is something like this and the casting aligns the best performers in this art form, all I can say is it could not get any better. Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and of all Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage is a surprising actor. He dazzles in movie like this and also ready to give cheesy routine Hollywood flicks too. Cage is an actor if rightly used can be the best performer any creator would get.

I did not write a review out here in a common nature I tend to. It is tough to write a review for this movie. I guess it is due to the fact of its purity and originality of a genius screen writer. It is tough to withstand the frank disclosure of a human mind to an unimaginable extent.