Do I Still Love Movies? – Part III: ‘Adaptation’

I can’t even begin to navigate the complexities of Adaptation. The characters are amazingly dense and the script is a monster of its own. All at once, I will oversell this movie so there’s no way that you will like it while also underselling it because I cannot do it justice. It’s a fool’s errand.

Let’s start at the beginning. The movie was released in the winter of 2002. I’m going to be 100% honest with you. Seventeen-year-old Brandon drove the 45 minutes with his friend Cory to see this movie for one reason: Nicholas Cage.

Through high school I was a huge Nicholas Cage fan, and it was hard not to be. The Rock, ConAir, and Gone in 60 Seconds were classic movies for teenagers in the late 1990s. I knew going into it that Adaptation. would be different, but my history with art house movies to that point was falling asleep during The Silence of the Lambs and a couple of Quentin Tarantino movies.

Nothing that I knew about film had prepared me for the experience that I had with Adaptation. If you aren’t familiar with the film, it was written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and directed by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are) and revolves around the character Charlie Kaufman (played by Cage) trying to adapt a book called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep).

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As the movie progresses, the script morphs to reflect Charlie’s interpretation of what is happening as he adapts the screenplay. There is a noticeable shift when he invites his twin brother Donald to help him with it.

Just as fascinating as watching it from a structural standpoint, the characters are extremely rich and dense. Charlie is a successful writer putting way too much pressure on himself. He’s his biggest detractor even though he is surrounded by people that believe in him and give him support along the way. He just brushes off their complements and focuses on his shortcomings.

His twin brother Donald is the exact opposite. He has all of the self-confidence that Charlie didn’t get but none of the talent. As Charlie points out, Donald has the admirable trait of being oblivious, but even what he does understand doesn’t bother him. One of my all time favorite movie quotes comes from Donald. Charlie recalls a story from high school about when Donald was talking to a girl that he was in love with. The girl was being polite, but as soon as Donald turned his back she started making fun of him with one of her friends. Donald says that he knew that they were making fun of him, but he didn’t care. The love that he had for this girl was his not hers. He owned it and she had no right to take it from him. “You are what you love, not what loves you.”

Susan Orlean is the fictionalized version of the real writer of The Orchid Thief. In the movie she struggles with direction. Her life lacks passion and she desperately wants to have something to care about. She’s drawn to her subject John Laroche (played by Chris Cooper) because passion is literally the only thing he has in life. Laroche has admittedly had a hard life, but don’t overlook the amount of his heartbreak that has come by his own hand.

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The acting in the film is superb. The three leads were all nominated for Oscars, and Cooper actually won. These three actors put everything they had into the characters and it shows. There were also great cameos by Brian Cox, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenall, Jim Beaver, and the cast of Being John Malkovich all playing themselves.

I have identified with each of the characters at some point in the 12 years since the movie was released. For the longest time I was a Charlie. My inner monologues were a constant reminder of my weaknesses. He’s a self-hating narcissist, but every time someone tries to get close he changes focus inward to push them away. He has a romantic storyline with a woman who he’s known for some time, and while she is very clearly interested he refuses to make a move and struggles with being alone.

In a lot of ways, Charlie and Donald’s relationship reminds me a lot of the friendship that Cory and I had at the time. While we had a lot in common, what set us apart was our confidence levels. I remember Cory once saying about me, “He’s a good looking guy; he just has the self-confidence of a stray dog. Meanwhile I look like a stray dog and have a ton of self-confidence.”

I have only identified with Laroche on one viewing. It’s his intense passion for everything that he does that intrigues me, much like it did Susan. He didn’t just start a nursery; he became one of the foremost authorities on orchids and went so far as to study Darwin’s writings. He tells a wonderfully illustrated story about how flowers have mutated over the years to specifically attract certain species of insects. “…when you spot your flower, you can’t let anything get in your way.” This is great advice no matter your passion.

I have also identified with Orlean a few times when watching the movie. I felt pretty lost the first few years out of college. We were in the midst of a recession and no one was hiring for my skill set. Her comments on adaptation rang true for me. “What I came to understand is that change is not a choice. Not for a species of plant, and not for me.” I love the scene where she decides that seeing a ghost orchid (one of the rarest flowers in the world) would help her find meaning. She begs Laroche to take her into the swamp to find one. She’s exhausted, bug bitten, and not sure that she will get out of the swamp. After hours of trekking she finally sees one to which her response is, “It’s just a flower.” I’m generally not a huge Meryl Streep fan, but she is amazing in this movie. This is definitely my favorite performance of hers.

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Usually when watching this movie my focus is on the structure of the script itself. It is so complex in the way that it adapts to itself as it progresses that I am fascinated by it. At the same time, it is accessible enough for a seventeen-year-old to walk out of it claiming that it was his new favorite movie.

This time my focus was somewhere completely new. I didn’t identify with a specific character or the structure of the story. Instead I was pulled in by the analysis of adaptation itself and how it applied to the characters. The surface of the film discuses adaptation on the macro level; going from single celled organisms to humans and the painstaking process of mutating over generations to survive as a species. However, if you listen to some specific moments of dialogue and align them with the story, then you see that it also delves into adaptation on the micro level. It isn’t just about humans needing to adapt as a species, but also as individuals if they want to survive and truly be happy with their lives.

Charlie adapts as he learns the lessons that he states at the beginning of the film he does not want any characters to learn. He finds new meaning in life and becomes a better man for it. Laroche’s passions change with the seasons, but he adapts his entire lifestyle to get the most out of each one. Orlean has the most noticeable adaptation as she becomes something that she never intended. Wanting to feel passion she eventually turns to a secret life of sex and drugs to escape from her New York high society friends.

I’m really glad I chose Adaptation. to begin my journey of rediscovery for my love of movies. It is an incredible movie from start to finish, and is deservedly in my top ten favorite movies. The first time I watched it a whole new world of cinema was opened up to me in viewing film as an art and not just entertainment. It’s also a big reason why I write today. I can’t promise that this movie will speak to you, but I can tell you that after 12 years and at least as many viewings it still speaks to me every time.

Next time I’ll discuss my favorite Christopher Nolan movie: Inception. It made stupid people think, smart people applaud, and everyone want to see it again.

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