Adaptation

"Adaptation"

Directed by: Spike Jonze

1) Our film starts with a monologue. The voice is that of Charlie Kaufman, a screen writer with a tendency to take every aspect of his own life into a negative, pessimistic mindset and rationalization. Set to begin in Hollywood, California just after the release of "Being John Malkovich". (A film Charlie had previously adapted into a screen play and hence, launched himself into the spotlight in the writing world.) Charlie is attempting to write a screen play that is simple and pure. A movie simply about flowers. No added drama, no special effects. The canonical of our film is that of a very surreal world. Enhanced by Charlie's neurotic voice-overs and esthetically framed day dreams, nothing seems to be working for Charlie. The canonical also seems to set the idea that every aspect of this movie we are going to see will be through the eyes and thoughts of Charlie, weather in a good light or bad. Mostly bad.

2) Much of the beginning of our film is spent learning more of Charlie and also introduces Susan Orlean, author of "The Orchid Thief". Charlie seems to have developed a writer's block with his screenplay as well as with his life. Unable to rationally think and with very little self confidence we watch as Charlie desperately tries to sort out his "simple" adaptation of the book. The inciting incident of our film, to me, was when Charlie's twin brother Donald Kaufman decides he also would like to be a screen writer. Charlie finds him to be an annoyance and doesn't seem to be very supportive of his brother's ideas and methods of writing. Charlie believes that no self help book or seminar can possibly teach one person to write an amazing script. Some dramatic irony is introduced as Charlie receives a phone call from his agent exclaiming how brilliant Donald's script is. Irony at its greatest, an amateur writer writes a masterpiece as a veteran struggles and refuses help. This is a disruption to our canonical because Charlie is now more open and less stubborn to his brother's suggestions. We see Charlie's character flaws at their greatest in Act 2 when he decides to take the same 3 day seminar from the acclaimed writer Robert McKee. Here Charlie is belittled this time by McKee for believing that nothing is happening around him in real life. Charlie then comes to the realization of what it really means to write a great movie. He needs to find the one thing to bring about a change in his movie's ending. The surreal world around Charlie is beginning to crumble.

3) "Adaptation" has a basic three act structure with two parallel sub plots. One of which follows Charlie, and the other follows Susan. In Act 1 we are introduced to all of our characters and the climax was when Charlie knew he must accept the help of his brother to get the guidance he needs. This moves us off into Act 2 where we no longer focus on Charlie's writers/life block. But in order to begin his script he will need to learn much more of Susan than he had gotten from the book. He needs to find what was never put down into words. To our advantage we see the paralleling life of Susan and we watch as her relationship with John Larouche (the man she interviewed for the New Yorker) progresses into that of a sexual desire and a need to want something passionately. What she found instead was a euphoria brought on by a herbal drug found in the very same orchids she