Cinema Styles: Adaptation a mind-bending masterpiece

Film: Adaptation (2002)

Director: Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich)

Cast: Nicolas Cage (Raising Arizona), Meryl Streep (Deer Hunter), Chris Cooper (American Beauty)

Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

Rating: R

Runtime: 115 minutes

Genres: Comedy, Drama

Awards: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Cooper) and Academy Award Nominations for Best Actor (Cage), Best Supporting Actress (Streep), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Kaufman)

Adaptation is the unique movie from the idiosyncratic mind of Charlie Kaufman. Directed by the great Spike Jonze, this film tells the story of an indecisive screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman who tries desperately to adapt “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean into a film. It’s based on the partially-true story of Kaufman attempting to adapt the book four years prior.

Adaptation is a difficult film to write about. It’s a movie literally about itself. It’s a story about the writing process, specifically (and ironically) the experience of having writer’s block. It’s an absolute masterpiece that invites the viewer to actively engage and think about the movie while watching. It’s not “escapist cinema” or something you put on in the background while you do something else.

It’s a movie that constantly references itself, going so far as to become an Ouroboros (an ancient symbol depicting a snake eating itself) when the main character stops midway through the movie to describe a script idea for a new film. What he describes is literally everything you’ve seen in Adaptation up to that point. It’s mind boggling.

This film is multi-layered and strange, both of which are meant as compliments of the highest degree. It’s the kind of movie that will make you laugh and cause you to think about the meaning of life in the same scene. It features a bold mixture of fiction and nonfiction storytelling, making it difficult to discern between the events that truly happened and those that were fabricated for the story.

The film’s special effects are impressive. Nicolas Cage plays twin brothers, Charlie and Donald Kaufman. The effects allow them to shoot several scenes in which the actor plays both characters, oftentimes in the same shot. It’s a complex and delicate special effect to get correct, but they execute it flawlessly, and it really allows Cage the opportunity to exhibit his skills as an actor.

Cage has never been better in any of his film performances. His portrayal of both Kaufman brothers is astounding, and unlike anything else he’s ever done. Charlie in particular is fascinating, with his character’s lack of confidence and constant second-guessing atypical for a Nicolas Cage performance.

The title of the film is an obvious reference to the book Kaufman is attempting to adapt into a movie, but it also takes on other meanings as well. One of the themes of the movie is the idea of all living creatures needing to adapt to changes in their environments and circumstances. It’s a universal truth that unites all beings, big and small.

Adaptation is a film about passion, and finding what makes you excited about being alive. At one point one of the characters says, “you are what you love, not what loves you back.” This statement rings true as it applies to unrequited love, but also the idea how a person feels about the world will affect them more profoundly than how the world feels about them.

The film also features career-best performances from Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper. Neither actor has ever been better, and Streep in particular has never been weirder. Cooper won an Academy Award for his portrayal of John La Rouche. Streep played a fictional version author Susan Orlean, whose book the screenwriter is attempting to adapt.

One of the best compliments the film received is from the real Orlean.

Upon seeing the movie, she said the movie is “very true to the book’s themes of life and obsession, and there are also insights into things which are much more subtle in the book about longing, and about disappointment.”

Adaptation is the most meta film in existence. It’s the funniest depiction of writer’s block ever made, and is unabashedly weird in every way. It’s a masterpiece that actively reinvents itself mid-movie multiple times. It’s about love and passion, and every metaphorical insect searching for their flower. If you don’t mind something a little different, this movie will deliver.

Robert Styles studied Film at UCLA, and worked as an editor and producer on several film, commercial, and music video projects in Los Angeles. He currently teaches the intermediate and advanced Video Production courses in the Multimedia & Technology Academy at Monache High School. His column appears in The Recorder every Tuesday.