CS Daily Archive > DVD of the Day > 03/18/04

The Painstaking, Heartbreaking,
and Sidesplitting Problem of Adaptation

by Yon Motskin

Charlie Kaufman's self-obsessed script for Adaptation is at once multi-layered, moving, and funny -- providing him and his "brother" Donald each with their second Oscar nomination, and a generation of screenwriters a carbon from which to copy.

Charlie Kaufman & Donald Kaufman
Based on the book by Susan Orlean

Neurotic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is assigned to adapt New Yorker writer Susan Orlean's non- fiction book The Orchid Thief, about eccentric Florida horticulturist John Laroche. Kaufman soon stumbles into severe writer's block, worsened only by his social ineptitude and his superficial twin brother Donald's success. As Charlie begins to fall in love with Orlean, she in turn falls in love with Laroche. The whole triangle tightens when Donald convinces Charlie, who's written himself into his screenplay, to seek out Orlean, and the events of each story eventually weave together into a climactic chase -- the exact climax that Charlie was desperately trying to avoid in his story.

Webster's Dictionary defines adaptation as the "change in structure, function or form that improves the chance of survival for an animal or plant." The problem of adaptation has been a familiar one to screenwriters for decades. The issue, of course, is how to remain faithful to the original text while creating a dramatic, cinematic story. Change is required, but how much? Charlie Kaufman clearly wrestled with this very issue: while engrossing, the book The Orchid Thief is not dramatic. Not only was Kaufman faced with the task of creating a plot (without "car chases and characters that overcome and learn life lessons"), he had to show the inner conflict of Kaufman, Orlean and Laroche through action. But how?

By solving the latter first (inner conflict through character), the plot almost wrote itself. First Kaufman created the ingenious antagonist of his own twin brother, hack screenwriter Donald. (The imaginary Donald Kaufman was not only listed as Kaufman's co- writer in the film's credits -- one wonders how Columbia pulled off that with the Writers Guild -- but thereby also shared Kaufman's Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.) By creating Donald, Kaufman's ruminations and personal struggle about "staying true to your art" can take the form of arguments with his twin, as opposed to relying on voiceover.

Second, Kaufman ensured that the three main characters were each struggling with the same problem, the main theme of the story: the problem of adaptation. Kaufman and his script; Orlean and her New Yorker piece; Laroche and his quest for the ghost orchid. Last, Kaufman made all three characters lonely, so that when they pursue each other, their problems of adaptation -- and the plot -- are resolved. And in the end the characters, alas, change.

As unconventional and knot-twisting as it first seems, what keeps Adaptation from fraying is its very tight and conventional structure. Kaufman hides his efficiency in establishing characters and motivations by comical situations. Laroche's intelligence in the Florida swamp, Kaufman's self-doubt in the Hollywood lunch and parties, Orleans shrewdness in Laroche's truck.

Adaptation finishes with a thrilling chase, one that is either a) cliche and predictable, b) original and thrilling, c) ironic and self-reflexive, or d) all three. The answer of course, and a comment on the troika of characters, is implied by Donald Kaufman's own derivative script, the multiple-personality thriller The 3.

- Cast and Filmmaker Bios
- Theatrical Trailer

It seems fitting that there are no extras worth mentioning. Their inclusion would be redundant, since Kaufman already explained in heartbreaking detail the process of writing in the film itself.

Charlie Kaufman's mind-warped movie about writing and obsession, the DVD of Adaptation is a must- have for any screenwriter, if only for its brilliant structure, deeply-drawn characters, and comical portrait of worst-case scenarios and what not to do when you're writing a screenplay.

Adaptation
Columbia Tri-Star
$19.95

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Writer-director Yon Motskin is a recent graduate of the New York University film program. He is currently in preproduction on his first feature, Cutman, a dark boxing drama based on his award-winning short which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and will screen at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

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