 Adaptation (2002) Adaptation is the follow-up collaboration between Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, and it's leagues better both because of its absolute boldness and its emotional depth. Kaufman once again gets "weird," but in this case, the weirdness seems far less like a self-indulgent drama-club über-nerd pulling one over on the rest of his crowd – it profoundly dissects Kaufman himself, offering sometimes painfully personal revelation. The endless, obsessive inventiveness is intact, as is the intellectually slapstick sense of humor (the closest thing in film to the writing of Mark Leyner, who never really got his due, so here it is). But Adaptation manages to transcend all the willful "look how intentionally odd I can be" ambiguousness by making Kaufman the story. Who knows how much of it is real … but I know plenty of writers who will identify with the film intensely, whether they want to or not. The movie riffs on the situation of anarchic contrarian Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) being contracted to adapt the Oprah-type best-seller The Orchid Thief into a screenplay, naturally triggering every anti-Hollywood impulse in his being. His profound self-loathing comes through in several scenes depicting Kaufman as a socially malajusted and eternally disappointed fellow who pursues his notion of art rigorously … which never makes him happy. His twin brother Donald is a hack writer with all the qualities Kaufman lacks – he's charming, social, kinda dumb, laissez-faire, shallow, and, yeah, happy. His brother's success with a first screenplay (viciously, one of those hackneyed "twisty thrillers" that have been so prevalent since The Sixth Sense) only depresses Charlie further. As the story spins out of control, ultimately bringing Charlie and his brother to the Florida swampland where Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her subject John Laroche (Chris Cooper) have plunged into a seedy affair fueled by snorting hallucinogenic orchid extracts. The film absolutely belongs to Cage, who is better than he's ever been – the dual roles are so fully fleshed out that I never once remembered that I was watching one man play both brothers, much less that the man in question starred in Valley Girl. It's one of the best pieces of acting ever caught on film, right up there with my mom telling my dad she loves him, in some of our old home movies. Cooper rightfully got the Supporting Actor Oscar™ for his commanding, note-perfect performance as Laroche, simultaneously sexy and repulsive, intellectual and backwoods hicky. Streep is good, but that was expected. Once the film latches on to a conventional narrative that may or may not be outright parody, it becomes infinitely less interesting. What comes through most is a portrait of a writer whose own adaptation – to life as a human being – is a sad, desperate struggle. This is what sticks Adaptation in my mind long after I've seen it, and longer after Malkovich has been filed away as merely hipster food. Hanging in the balance, though, is this overriding ache for Kaufman to really unbind himself and write something beautiful.
Review by Cynthia Tonga |