Film Review - Adaptation 2002

Adaptation (2002) was directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. It is a film about a screenplay writer who attempts at writing a film based on a book where nothing actually happens. The original book was written by Susan Orlean. It's a book about flowers.



There was actually some confusion on my part, about whether some of the characters were even real. Turns out who I thought was an imaginary double of himself, turned out to be a real character in the film. There was some other confusion caused by the fact that I missed a pivotal moment in the film. The first half was a lot of talking and not much else. But by the time I came back it was drugs, guns, car chases and death. I wondered whether I'd wandered into the wrong cinema!

The main character wanted to make a film that wasn't your typical Hollywood film. But in the end the film turns into that. Maybe that's because it is impossible for an audience to enjoy a film in which nothing happens, so the writer gives in and creates the Hollywood ending.

On www.plume-noire.com, Fred Thom said

"Kaufman shows how easy it is to lure the audience with a couple of cheap screenwriting tricks."

The interesting thing is that the main character Charlie Kaufman, ends up having to make his screenplay more conventional, and the film we are watching follows in its path.