In the movie industry, large egos aren’t exactly in short supply. But even the most self-indulgent filmmakers must take a bow to screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, whose “Adaptation,” while tender and brilliant, comes across like an act of cinematic masturbation.
The picture, written by Kaufman, is about a screenwriter named Charlie Kaufman, who is played, oddly enough, by Nicholas Cage. The character is hired to adapt a nonfiction book, titled “The Orchid Thief,” about a nature enthusiast who poaches federally-protected orchids for sport.
For those who don’t know the back story on “Adaptation,” an explanation might be in order: There actually is a book titled “The Orchid Thief,” written by New Yorker scribe Susan Orlean, who really did track down a maniac orchid enthusiast from the Everglades and interview him. In addition to the main story involving Kaufman, the film flashes back to events shared between Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, and the poacher, played by Chris Cooper, as their relationship develops in the Florida swamps.
All of this is supposedly based in fact, including the segments involving Kaufman, who in real life was given the opportunity to adapt the Orlean book into a movie following the success of “Being John Malkovich,” for which he earned a screenwriting Oscar nomination.
If the events in “Adaptation” are to be believed, Kaufman would have done himself a favor by avoiding the book and everyone associated with it. Upon realizing “The Orchid Thief” has almost no cinematic potential, the protagonist succumbs to writer’s block and has a nervous breakdown, after which he decides to mix elements of the Orlean book with his own autobiography; the resulting work seems have as much to do with a screenwriter trying to adapt an unfilmable book than the horticultural adventures of a backwater flower poacher.
And so the movie’s narrative, which starts with an orchid thief and ends with the submission of a script that is to be made into the very movie we are watching, comes full circle.
Since “Adaptation” allows Kaufman, through his on-screen counterpart, to moan about the rigors of trying to turn “The Orchid Thief” into a film — not to mention his baldness, his weight problem and his trouble with women — critics might be tempted to dismiss the film as an exercise in navel-gazing. But in its elaborate plot contortions, its willingness to pose questions about the nature of reality and by the sheer beauty of its craft, the film is also a work of genius.
Look, for instance, at the way “Adaptation” is structured, cutting between Kaufman’s artistic purgatory and Orlean’s adventures with the orchid poacher: We soon realize the poacher story is merely an outgrowth of the Kaufman segments, since Kaufman begins writing their destinies halfway through “Adaptation.” This puts the viewer in the interesting position of watching the main character mull over story developments we’ve already seen play out.
If all of this sounds a little bewildering, don’t fret. “Adaptation” is easier seen than explained, and there’s plenty to recommend the film apart from the crazy plot. The characters are all warm and eccentric, each in his or her own way. Orlean is a typical New York intellectual, but because she’s played by Streep, there’s something underneath those polished surfaces that is quite vulnerable and compelling.
She’s longing to find something in her life to really care about, so it stands to reason she should be attracted to the poacher. As portrayed by Cooper, he resembles nothing so much as a greasy swamp rat, but the character’s uncontrollable orchid obsession, strange is it may be, seems to fill his life with meaning.
Cage, whose recent roles have not been greatly taxing, does double duty here. He plays not only Charlie Kaufman, but also Charlie’s twin brother, Donald. The two characters inhabit many of the same shots with the help of visual effects, and it is a testament to Cage’s performance that we can always distinguish the brooding, slumping Charlie from Donald, a dolt for whom everything seems to come easily.
These are some of the most memorable movie characters to come along in years and, while “Adaptation” is not always as exuberantly funny as “Malkovich,” there are patches of comic brilliance that cannot be denied. (One thinks of the orchid poacher’s ingenious method of evading the legal consequences of his thievery: he recruits Native Americans, who are exempt from endangered species laws, to do his dirty work.)
Perhaps the film’s most virtuoso comic development comes as Donald decides to become a screenwriter like his brother and enrolls in one of those hack screenwriting seminars that teach the secrets to writing “hit movies.” Miraculously, Donald ends up selling his first script for a bundle and Charlie, still grasping for a way to resolve his treatment of “The Orchid Thief,” does the unthinkable — he swallows his artistic pride, enrolls in Donald’s seminar and finds a way to conclude his script. That’s just the set-up; the punchline comes as we watch the story of the orchid poacher take a serious left turn into the world of Hollywood clichés.
Judging by their success with “Malkovich,” one of the best films of the late 1990s, and now “Adaptation,” Kaufman and director Spike Jonze seem determined to turn our concept of narrative filmmaking inside out, to challenge our expectations of what a movie is capable of. The boredom imposed on us by one Hollywood product after another begins to pierce one’s soul after awhile. “Adaptation” is a tonic worthy of the admission price.
