Adaptation and Charlie Kaufman
Brilliant!!! What’s so special about it? Innovative scriptwriting. If you are peeved watching the routine Hollywood insanity of pathetic and ridiculous films, this is the movie waiting for you. A brilliant idea to create an imaginary twin and write the script on a script writer ‘adapting’ the book for a motion picture.
Its just an epitome of genius. Charlie Kaufman is one of the best scriptwriter around. Remember “Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind” (ESOTSM) and “Being John Malkovich” (BJM). This movie is the perfect sandwich of the two from Charlie. I watched the other two before watching this. ESOTSM had a big expectation and in the end failed while Adaptation lived up to it, at least in my opinion. Ironically ESOTSM won the tainted Oscar for Charlie who should have won hands down for this over “The Pianist” which is a great film but we are talking about the art of scriptwriting. Watch them both and judge.
Its difficult to place it in any genre other than ‘Drama’. But I am just impressed by the writing skill of kaufman even more. Ironic and funny thing was Mckee (another real life scriptwriting guru) used as ‘deus ex machina‘ which he opposes vigorously. I realized this after watching the whole movie. Its a movie you can think over after watching it to find out how brilliant, subtle and intelligent a script writer can be. If you don’t enjoy the movie per se, you should atleast be able to appreciate the impeccable work of Kaufman.
Nicolas cage is the best I have seen so far and I dont say it just like that. This role (believe me) is more difficult than the alcoholic suicidal screenwriter in “Leaving Las Vegas” (sober) and I would like to see how the real Charlie kaufman behaves. Nic does his best to make them look as dissimilar as possible. Donald, the twin brother is a nice contrast to Charlie. Donald’s script discussion with Charlie is entertaining and the conversation between the brothers is brilliant throughout. Meryl streep and Chris cooper (couldn’t believe it was him) once again live the characters like they usually do. Well done Spike Jones for good direction and not spoiling the difficult script. Of Spike-Charlie combo, I would pick this over BJM for proper coordination of the script, directing and editing.
Can’t hail Charlie Kaufman enough. This completes four of his five films. “Human nature” is the one I am yet to see. Three of the four films are based on real characters, BJM (John Malkovich), Adaptation (himself, Susan orlean and John Laroche) and Confessions of a dangerous mind (Chuck barris). If I had to pick the best from Charlie, it has to be Adaptation.
Its a movie about florets, evolution, orchid thief, Ghost orchid, book writer, desperation, forlornness, script writing and much more. Watch it ASAP.
“You are what you love, not what loves you.”
-Donald kaufman
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
wow the last line is amazing !!!!
Must see … Adaptation
- Adaptation, no doubt has been one of those movies that pushed me to write fiction. Some of the most impressionable scenes that are forever stamped in memory are : The struggles of Cage the script writer to write the screenplay for Streep’s book and how he moves from pillar to post to get advise from people – watch the screenwriting class he takes in NY and then meets the professor on the sidewalk. And ofcourse the taunt Act 3 where he enters Cooper’s house (Cooper btw won the best supporting Oscar for this)…
Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine was something that just didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t find myself opening up to the craziness of it all.
There is a certain element of “craziness” required when a writer holds the pen or places his fingers on the keyboard. This craziness frees him from all that binds others in the world – shackled to limiting thoughts, ideas, beliefs. Kaufman’s stories more than point to the freedom of mind Kaufman experiences when he pens a script.
“If you don’t enjoy the movie per se, you should atleast be able to appreciate the impeccable work of Kaufman”
i guess i fall in this category. I really didnt like the movie per se… The pacing was too damn slow. Too little use of lights. But, the script was one amazing piece. Left me wondering, how a fantastic screenwriter like Kauffman can write a beautiful script out of nothing.
For once i didnt like Meryl Streep in this one.
I second sumeet’s quote but something that left me wondering in all his movies is how detached his work from the reality that surrounds us.
Eternal Sunshine worked for me but BJM was a bit too hard to digest. Amazing script no doubt after each of his movies I ended up asking myself does he write when he’s in a trance or dreaming…
Confessions is my fav though… yet to watch human nature….
@Karthik
Tell me what you think after watching it. I am pissed off from most of the hate-felt feedback people retort after watching Charlie’s movies. For this fear, I stopped recommending his movies.
@Oz
“There is a certain element of “craziness” required when a writer holds the pen or places his fingers on the keyboard. This craziness frees him from all that binds others in the world – shackled to limiting thoughts, ideas, beliefs. Kaufman’s stories more than point to the freedom of mind Kaufman experiences when he pens a script.”
Couldnt agree more. BTW there is a quote in the movie that I liked from tilda swinton to Charlie and its something even I felt like like saying to him:
“Boy, I’d like to find a portal into your brain.”
Funny enough BJM was all about a portal into another person’s mind.
@Sumeet
“The pacing was too damn slow.”
Yeah I read many reviews complaining about the pace. The movie was about Charlie. Being his fan, I wasn’t bored a bit. But what about lighting? I felt the movie had pretty good cinematography. Those bit sequences of evolution, swamp, orchids, etc was done good!
“Yes Meryl streep is such a brilliant actress that this role was a routine cakewalk for her. But its more a case of the character than to do with her acting. The characer was desperate and lonely.
@ravptor
“ended up asking myself does he write when he’s in a trance or dreaming…”
Yeah I had similar doubts too. He writes an unimaginable weird script like BJM and a different unique yet difficult one like Adaptation. Like Sumeet said, he wrote a scipt out of nothing. Maybe the book from Susan orlean :-)
Confessions is good. Clooney is an impressive director and Sam rockwell was brilliant in it. In a way its less dependancy on Charlie than other movies. Its little bit straightforward for his writing style, Dont you think?