Review of Adaptation. (2002) by Smitha V — 11 Aug 2011

Charlie Kaufman's film ADAPTATION provides no easy answers. Blending the line between fact and fiction, he gives us, through the brilliant lens of Spike Jonze, a contemplative look at art and the artists that make it.

ADAPTATION is, in very obvious ways, about the creation of itself, and therefore it sheds light on the act of creation on a broader scale, one that Kaufman writes brilliantly, Jonze captures brilliantly, and is acted brilliantly by Meryl Streep, Nicholas Cage (in his best performance) and Chris Cooper.

Since you feel that the movie is shaping itself as it goes along, it not only takes twists and turns that you can actively feel happening, but pulls us all into an intimate and thoughtfully enlightening experience, to say the least.

Cage plays real-life screenplay writer Kaufman with such ho-hum self-degradation that it establishes Charlie as someone struggling to understand (to adapt to, to bring to life) the story that the audience is watching.

The result is fascinating. We feel the struggle because we are never sure if the writer knows any more than we do where the story is going. Kaufman, the character, is given a suggestion for an ending to his story and that's the ending that Kaufman, the writer, writes and presents.

It's the only film to present writer's block as something worthwhile and interesting, most likely because there is more to it than just that. The situation explores and criticizes the current state of Hollywood, given the restrictions on artistic integrity in loo of more crowd-pleasing and dollar-raking fare.

The ironic genius of it all, is that Kaufman writes the very story he criticizes; he gives us that ending, he uses narrative voice-overs, he questions the passions of his Kaufman character, essentially questioning himself.

It is very much a film about passion, and why people need passions, why we need something to adapt to for our brief time on Earth to make it into time well spent. Kaufman, the writer, certainly does this by the juxtaposition of the other story line, featuring Streep and Cooper as novelist Susan Orlean and her lover (?), which feeds off of the essence of nonfiction wonder just as much as Kaufman's story does on the nature of artistic creation.

You feel both Cooper and Streep's passions, and that may very well be why they are written to be lovers, when in the real world, that was probably not the case. It begs the question of whether art is real or not, a question that Christopher Nolan also tackled in his INCEPTION.

Kaufman straddles that line intelligently, never giving easy answers, but always allowing for some engaging discussion. Through Kaufman's metaphysical psychologically involved approach, this becomes one of the best screenplays ever written.

Is it the best movie ever made? No, but maybe it never really tries to be more than what it is, which is to say: genius. A-.