Adaptation
Programme Notes
Time Out Review
'Do I have an original thought in my head?' moans blocked screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nic Cage). 'Why can't there be a movie simply about flowers?' Something of a shrinking violet himself, Kaufman is struggling to adapt Susan Orlean's non fiction book 'The Orchid Thief into a movie. He loves the book too much. It's only when he writes himself into the script that the words start to grow. Even then, there's no third act...
According to our interview (see Time Out no. 1697) with screenwriting guru Robert McKee (who also figures in the film), this is 'your basic education plot, crisscrossed with a disillusionment plot, but in the broad category of autobiography'. McKee's busily promoting himself on the back of it, and has even written the afterword to the published screenplay. Which is ironic. At least the way I saw it (and if Kaufman can write himself into the movie, I don't see why we shouldn't join in), 'Adaptation' represents the absolute antithesis of the McKee doctrine of pre fabricated story construction and reductive emotional arcs'. These guys are thinking way out of the box. The Hollywood insider jibes cut all the more deeply for the fact that Kaufman obviously feels split about his own gifts and motivations (hence the inspired invention of his crass commercial 'twin', Donald, gratefully seized on by the exuberant Cage). But this discursive, unpredictable comedy is more than smoke and mirrors; it's truly astute about a certain diffidence which afflicts the intellectual elite (beautifully caught by Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean), about the self consuming nature of obsession, and about orchids come to that. For two thirds of its running time 'Adaptation' is close to genius. But there's still no third act.
Tom Charity
Time Out
26 February 2003
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