Adaptation (2002) : Better than the Book [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we get 2 Cage for the price of one in Adaptation. This is most certainly a first in Cage Club where Nicolas Cage plays twin brothers, Charles and Donald Kaufman. The film is an exploration of the writing process, more specifically the art of adapting a novel for the big screen. It looks at the art of screenwriting and the internal struggle for a writer to say something original and authentic. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The movie also explores what it means for people to Adapt by playing with themes like facing your fears, accepting change and learning to grow.
The movie stars Nic Cage as real life Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Charles has a new assignment, turn the book “The Orchid Thief” into a screenplay. His main problem seems to be that he wants to tell a story about flowers, but he’s just not passionate about flowers and has a terrible time constructing a narrative from the plotless book. He strives to be original and true to the book and not succumb to the same old tired proven method of structure, form and plot that standard hollywood movies settle for.
Cage also plays Donald Kaufman, the twin brother of Charles. Donald is also a screenwriter, but the two can’t be more different. Where Charles is a passionate independent artist that strives for originality, Donald likes Blockbuster movies filled with action and excitement. Donald represents the other half of Kaufman’s split personality. He pretty much represents everything that Charles doesn’t want to do with the script he’s writing. Charles is going to have to learn to accept his brother for who he is, therefore accepting that side of himself that likes and relies on proven principals. It’s this fusion that allows Kaufman the actual person writing the real script, to break certain rules of screenwriting ( excessive voiceover, flashbacks within’ flashbacks, etc. ) and transcend genre. By the end I feel as though I have seen something truly unique.
The film also shows the actual adaptation of The Orchid Thief : The Movie, within’ the movie about writing the movie. Kaufman and author Susan Orlean’s stories run parallel to each other until they merge at the end, when the literary and the cinematic worlds collide.
Cage does a great job establishing two distinct characters with Charles and Donald. Charles is hunched over, always sweating and is introverted. Donald is comfortable in his body, confident and outgoing. There is no mistaking his talent here and I dare say anyone who sees him in this film may need to accept and admit his abilities. I am reminded of Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers, but even the two brothers that Irons plays are very similar people.
The movie plays with the theme of adaptation a lot and is very self referential or “meta”, it acknowledges that it’s breaking movie rules and that it is a movie about making a movie. I feel like part of what makes this film so funny to me is the ways in which it “breaks the rules” of movie making or gets away with doing stuff that is overdone. Nic Cage is very different than Kaufman in real life and isn’t someone you would expect to play him, but the seemingly miscast Cage is a comment about adapting films and needing big stars to play the lead even if they don’t resemble them. In the film, Kaufman also talks about what he doesn’t want to write about, but inevitably his characters betray his intent to make the story more fun and interesting. The film uses the base elements of the book to create new motives and relationships, much like one might do to embellish certain elements of a novel that isn’t as exciting as it needs to be for mass the cinematic experience.
That will do it for this entry in the Cage Club. Coming up next on the list is Matchstick Men with co-star and dance machine Sam Rockwell. They play con artists, which makes me think of Deadfall !!! I wonder if this character in Matchstick Men will be anything like the super extreme one he plays in Deadfall. I have a feeling it’s going to be a little better just base off the fact that Matchstick Men is directed by Ridley Scott. We will find out soon enough !!!
Mike
@the_mikestir
