Abigail Greenwell: Response to Adaptation

I had heard of the movie Adaptation but also heard that it was very interestingly weird and crazy. After viewing it in class, I can definitely see why someone would use those specific words to describe this film. At first, early on into the movie, I found myself becoming lost and not really comprehending what was occurring. As the movie progressed it was then that I realized that this movie is pure genius.

In this movie, Adaptation, we see a struggling fat, bald, middle aged screenwriter who is continually questioning himself and his ability to write a screenplay. One theme we find for this movie ultimately becomes Kaufman facing his fears. This theme is a part of a much greater context though: adaptation. This theme of adaptation is twofold. The theme is revealed through the lives of the characters. Also the theme is revealed very literally as the finished product of Charlie Kaufman trying to adapt The Orchid Thief (the book from which he is basing his screenplay from). As Kaufman is struggling throughout the entire movie searching for a way to begin, he realizes as he begins to write that the only way he could possibly tell the story of The Orchid Thief is if he writes himself into the screenplay. Charlie Kaufman has to learn to adapt into the book and the writer's life. He begins to search for her to meet her and to adapt to her way of life so he can better understand what to write about for his screenplay.

Another theme we find for this movie is the symbol, or creative way to write, ouroboros. Ouroboros is a symbol that which Charlie's twin brother uses in his screenplay. This symbol that is used in many films today is the act of taking multiple characters and making them all the same person. Most of the time when this is used in screenplays, the audience does not find out until the end of that film. In Adaptation, we see this occur when Donald Kaufman, Charlie's twin brother, dies and Charlie takes on the characteristics of his brother and himself, thus taking on the action of ouroboros. The fact that Charlie feels he has to write himself into his screenplay, a story within a story, also brings about the whole theme of ouroboros.

Another way to look at this theme that has been incorporated into this film is to look at the four main characters in the movie. First we see Charlie Kaufman and his twin brother Donald Kaufman. It is amazing to see the very different personalities presented in each of these characters. They were so different that I myself thought at very first that they represented split personalities. Charlie Kaufman is a very quiet and nervous man who does not know where to begin with his screenplay. He even looses sleep over his writer's block. His screenplay is past due. Donald, on the other hand, is very vivacious, loud, sure of himself, and is even finished writing his screenplay way before its due date. Towards the end of the movie, we see Charlie as an ouroboros, taking on characteristics that his brother had to get his work done (tracking down Susan Orlean and going to the screenwriter's convention led by Robert McGee).

We also look at the relationship between Susan Orlean (the author of The Orchid Thief) and John Larouche (the man from which The Orchid Thief was based from). First we look at Susan Orlean. She is driven in life, she has direction. She is a business woman who is very sophisticated but she lacks all passion in life, even in her relationship with her husband. Second we look at John Larouche. He is a man who is extremely passionate about small and certain things in his life but is very quick to abandon them because he lacks direction in his life. At the end of the movie, John Larouche and Donald Kaufman both die. Because of these two deaths, Charlie and Susan Orlean both take on the characteristics and qualities from each of the characters that had died that they had once such a short time before had so lacked, making themselves whole, hence the ouroboros.

At the end of the movie we see that because Charlie and Susan had taken on these qualities that they had once lacked, they begin the live their lives differently. They had found the other part of themselves that they had for so long lacked.

This film was very interesting and I enjoyed it not only because it was a great film in general, but also because you had to use your mind and understand things such as life and relationships while viewing it. Overall, I give this film two thumbs up.