Rating- * * * * * (5/5)
There have always been filmmakers throughout the history of cinema that display a distinctive style and character that pervades all of their work. Most of these filmmakers have been directors (Hitchcock, Ford and Scorsese are all great examples) and occasionally there will be some producers who really show their mark on their work (Zanuck, Spielberg) but very seldom will you ever come across a screenwriter whose personality can dominate a film. Charlie Kaufman in the few short years of his career has become one of the most easily recognizable film personalities in the business without ever having appeared in or directed a film himself. Kaufman began his career with one of the most bizarre (and one of the best) movies of 1999, Being John Malkovich, which starred John Cusack, Catherine Keener and Cameron Diaz as three quarreling people who discover a doorway into the brain of the actor John Malkovich. The thing that set this film apart from other bizarre fantasy films is that rather than have the characters be some kind of avant garde creations, Kaufman places true-to-life characters into his totally bizarre worlds and watching them react to the impossible situations if half the joy. Events take place in a totally unpredictable fashion and while some truth is hinted at, the film is really more about the experience of watching it than its actual substance, which should always be the greater concern anyway. This is the genius of Charlie Kaufman. His second feature, Human Nature, didn’t receive the same praise and attention as Malkovich but was recognized for its originality (I haven’t seen this one yet, but after seeing this film, I’m planning on it). After seeing Kaufman’s latest effort, Adaptation, directed by Malkovich director Spike Jonze, I am convinced that he is one of the great filmmakers of our time. To see the film is to somewhat understand how it was made. After writing Malkovich, Kaufman was hired to write a screenplay for a book called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The book, inspired by an article in The New Yorker, is about a series of conversations between Orlean and an ill-fortuned, toothless orchid aficionado named John Laroche. The book is filled with details about Laroche’s life and particularly about orchids but, to Kaufman’s dismay, not much of a plot. Kaufman, being the great artist that he is, wants to maintain the spirit of the book but he cannot deny that it doesn’t seem to make a great movie. All of the events are in the film are based on real life as well, but this is the extent of the real world’s reach in this film. As Charlie Kaufman is struggling to write this seemingly impossible script, his idiot twin brother Donald moves in with him and decides to be a screenwriter as well. Nicholas Cage plays both twins rather brilliantly so that although they look identical, we are never uncertain as to which twin is which thanks to his very distinctive and nuanced performances. Donald and Charlie couldn’t be more unlike each other; Charlie is a somewhat snobbish genius with very little social confidence but an unfathomable appreciation for his art, while Donald is a womanizing opportunist who follows the formulaic principles of a screenwriting seminar he attended and is hailed as a fresh new voice for his brainless thriller screenplay. The scenes between the two brothers are some of the best as Donald’s success adds even more to Charlie’s frustration with his writing. When he finally feels that he’s reached an impasse in his screenplay, he decides to go visit Susan Orlean and see if he can discover anything about her or Laroche that isn’t in the book. What happens from this point forward I will not reveal but I will say that it is completely unexpected and unpredictable and defies seemingly everything that the rest of the film would suggest should happen. The film is brilliant on two levels: first, the main plotline, and second, the fact that Kaufman’s screenplay is actually of the screenplay being written. This unbelievable reality loop is what makes this film stand out as a masterpiece of postmodern writing and the mixing of reality (Susan Orlean, Laroche, and Kaufman) with completely fictional events (the existence of Donald Kaufman and the last quarter of the film) is pure genius. The performances by Cage, along with the great Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean and Chris Cooper (American Beauty) as John Laroche, are absolutely wonderful (Streep and Cooper both took home Golden Globes) and add yet another reason why this could be the best film of the year. Adaptation is a wonderful film about writing, orchids, love and the unpredictability of life. It is a masterpiece and deserves mine and everyone else’s acclaim as the Best Film of 2002.