Adaption. (2002) Review

Adaption. (2002)

Adaption. follows Charlie Kaufman, who, after being chosen to write the screenplay for Susan Orlean’s book The Orchard Thief, finds himself wrought with writers block, finding the book to be unadaptable in its simplicity, leading him to seek out it’s author for understanding. 

Charlie Kaufman, the real Charlie Kaufman that is, has made a career out of crafting meta films that destroy the line between reality and fiction. The tale of his writing Adaption. is thus a curious one. Originally tasked to adapt The Orchard Thief by Susan Orlean but suffering severe writers block, Kaufman took a gamble and instead wrote a somewhat fictionalized story about his inability to adapt the book (though in the process, adapting it from a second person perspective as he obsesses over how to write it into a movie). What’s truly remarkable though is that it works, on such a mind bogglingly deeper level than simply writing about one’s experience. It’s a story within a story (that may be within another story) that for Kaufman, is a self-critical analysis of himself and his own self worth (or lack thereof). 

How do you pour over a book, learn its every detail, and still not understand its place in the world unless something is wrong? Is it you and your ability to adapt? Is it the world around you and all of its inconsistencies? Or is it the author? Is she even telling the truth, thus changing the meanings of the book? Going even more meta, is every detail in Adaptation. to be looked into as well? Is Donald’s screenplay, The 3, really about Susan, Charlie, and Donald, and that all along, they are the same person, caught between trying to adapt and settling for who the world believes they to be?

We get a truly excellent cast, starring Ron Livingston, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep, and Nicolas Cage. What’s remarkable here is that for once, Cage isn’t Cage, and it might just be one of the best performances of his career, as we watch him riddled with self-doubt, insecurity, and loneliness, rivaling Cooper and Streep’s own struggles with heavy topics as people who really just want to do what the want, free of judgement and condemnation. 

Adaption., directed by Spike Jonze, is a film about questioning oneself and their worth in what they do. Are you good enough? Are you smart enough? Are you simply enough? That’s the question Kaufman poses about himself in the throws of writers block and in the process, answering it through the lens of people just trying to adapt, like even the most simplest of flowers. 

8.7/10