Adaptation, 2002, Spike Jonze
Always cynical, insecure and with a inferiority complex, the acknowledge screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) has already been given the task of writing a new screenplay based on writer Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book, “The orchid Thief”.
3 years ago, Florida. Susan Orlean has been suggested to write an article about John Laroche. When they meet each other, his character fascinates Susan, as excentric Laroche has a free, open, tolerant spirit. In spite of his emotional security, he has had to put up with the death of his mother, a divorce and his owns being destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. Now he works with Seminoles thanks to his vast knowledge of flowers and orchid poaching.
On the other hand, unhappy and wretch Susan finds in the orchid thief the way to escape from all her problems, the charm of a free being without prejudices nor ties that ends up pushing her to a net of ruin and tragedy.
Charlie Kaufman tries hard to adapt Susan’s book while he’s going through a bad time, facing a personal crisis that get worse with his brother’s attitude. Despite being twins, Donald Kaufman is the very antithesis of Charlie, though they are both screenwriters. Always self-confident Donald faces life with an entrepreneurial spirit and a positive attitude towards life whose screenplays are not as fabulous as Charlie’s but attract better public’s attention. Donald having success and the incapacity of turning the book into a film makes that Charlie blocks.
The director of such a fabulous creation, Spike Jonze, succeed in attracting spectators showing a film inside another film, creating a movie where Charlie Kaufman is writing the screenplay of the film that we are seeing. The director manage to making known three stories at the same time, Kaufman and his twin writing the script, Susan Orlean writing the book and John Laroche being the main character of Susan’s book and achieve that the spectator don’t lose the plot.
The duality between both Charlie and Donald/Susan and Laroche is also reflected in the plot division, where Jonze try to make the first half of the film more of a comedy but takes a turn to make the second part more of a drama, more of a tragic film with a surprise ending that live no one indifferent.
