Review of Adaptation. (2002) by Halfwelshman — 05 Mar 2012

Adaptation is further proof that no director does off-the-wall filmmaking like Spike Jonze, and no writer plays with the concept of reality quite as well as Charlie Kaufman. Adaptation is an extremely appropriate title for the film, which is an adaptation of and adaptation of an adaptation (the film follows a fictionalised Kaufman struggling to adapt a book into a screenplay, and he ends up writing himself trying to adapt the book into his film - that's three levels of reality).

Kaufman's writing, as per usual, is exceptionally clever, funny, and unconventional. He has a lot to say about being a writer, the film industry in general and social ineptitude. He bravely creates an exaggerated version of himself, a depressed, self-hating and bordering on paranoid personality, played brilliantly by Nicolas Cage, to act as narrator and ground the film's undeniably odd story in some semblance of reality.

The other characters in the film, all weird and wonderfully warped versions of real people, add a little something extra to the film, whether it be Meryl Streep's passionate and driven, but quite tragic journalist Susan Orlean, or Chris Cooper's slightly batty but compelling activist and orchid hunter John Laroche or Brian Cox's universally respected but rather arrogant screenwriting lecturer Robert McKee.

I also found the introduction of Charlie Kaufman's fictional twin brother Donald (Cage again) an interesting concept - it's almost as though Kaufman has a love-hate relationship with himself, and differing aspects of his personality, with each of the brothers representing particular personality traits.

The "Charlie" part of himself is thoughtful, intellectual, and occasionally brilliant, but at the same time is cripplingly shy and socially awkward. The "Donald" part of himself is charming, confident and interesting, but his writing is uninspired, mainstream drudgery.

The film could be commenting on Kaufman's desire to be better known and more loved, but also being unwilling to dumb down his writing to achieve this. Adaptation is an extremely effective film when talking about filmmaking, writing, inspiration and identity, but sometimes I felt Kaufman took these concepts a little too far.

The film's finale, especially, is quite jarring when compared to the rest of the film - it seems like Kaufman and Jonze have given up the originality and consistent tone of their film at this point in favour of a final act from a run-of-the-mill thriller.

This portion of the film is turgid, melodramatic and feels simply wrong, threatening to overwhelm the brilliant subtlety and quiet confidence of the of the first hour and twenty minutes or so. I'm also not sure whether Charlie's hallucination sequences were really necessary to demonstrate his sleep-deprived, uninspired state of mind either.

Even with its hugely disappointing conclusion and minor artistic niggles, Adaptation is an insightful, original and funny reality-distorting piece of cinema from two of the greatest talents working in the film industry today.

Being John Malkovich undeniably pulled off the same ideas more effectively, but Adaptation still has a lot to say, especially when taken as a companion piece to the aforementioned masterpiece.