Adaptation

by Peggy Sugarman

Genre: Drama
Starring: Meryl Streep, Nicholas Cage, Chris Cooper
Run time: 114 Minutes
Directed by Spike Jonze

This movie is up for so many Oscar nominations that I’m sitting here wondering just what I have to offer you by way of a review. ButI haven’t yet found a review that adequately reflects my own writer’s reaction. I should note here that the performances were as outstanding as we have all come to expect from Meryl Streep and Nicholas Cage, which probably doesn’t give them enough credit. Ditto for Chris Cooper, who is less well-known, but will surely see his income increase after this performance. Clearly, it is a “must see” for all aspiring writers and a “should see” for those of you who enjoy a wild ride now and again.

With his screenplay Being John Malkovich still in production, this is a story about how a real-life screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, tries to adapt a real-life book (The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean) into a movie script. Nicholas Cage plays Charlie Kaufman, in addition to Charlie’s fictional twin brother Donald, who also appears in the credits as having co-written the screenplay. (Truth be told, after A Beautiful Mind, I originally thought that Donald was Charlie’s imaginary alter ego and as such, I kept expecting him to disappear. However, Donald emerged as a real, albeit fictional, character.)

Meryl Streep plays New York writer Susan Orlean, who wrote The Orchid Thief after covering a story about a real-life plant thief who worked with a team of Seminole Indians to poach rare orchids from a Florida swamp. John Larouche, brilliantly played by actor Chris Cooper, is the bedraggled uneducated filthy slimy low-life poacher – right down to the missing front teeth. But when he opens his mouth and starts talking, we find him unexpectedly knowledgeable about plants, particularly rare orchids, along with a myriad of other subjects. (“I’m the smartest guy I know,” he says in a cocky, superior way.) It’s a fascinating study, therefore, to see the sophisticated New Yorker engage with this swampy character.

Charlie Kaufman begins to study The Orchid Thief with a commitment to be true to the writer’s intent. This is not his own work, after all, so he doesn’t want to stray from it. But however much he becomes interested in Orlean’s ephemeral portrayal of orchids, he just can’t find the storyline that would make it into an interesting movie. So he frets. He approaches his computer with dread. He loses sleep. He masturbates. He does what every writer has ever done in the frantic face of an approaching deadline knowing you have nothing to offer but a blank page. You hear the rambling voice-overs as he agonizes about what to write; whether to take a break; whether to eat a muffin. He just can’t FIND it.

In comes twin brother, Donald, who also wants to write a screenplay and manages to produce a formula Hollywood thriller that makes him a million while Charlie is still dodging his agent and pretending that he is progressing. In a last ditch attempt to coax a story out of the book, he and Donald go to New York to see Susan Orlean, who ends up slogging her way through the Florida swamps with Larouche to find the illusive ghost orchid.

The movie takes us to all kinds of unexpected places that you will have to experience for yourself. The title “Adaptation” is but a tickler, teasing you into thinking that this is just about adapting a book into a movie. But the real story has more to do with how organisms (yes, us included, thank you, Charles Darwin) adapt to survive. It is anything but formula, and you’ll have a hard time figuring out whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy. In fact, it is both.

Peggy Sugarman has spent 25 years working in California's workers' compensation system, having served 8 years as the Chief Deputy Director of the state's regulatory agency. She holds a Master's degree in Counseling and is currently consulting for the California Applicants' Attorneys Association -- an organization of attorneys who represent workers and fights for legislation to help workers who are injured on the job. She occasionally writes for on-line publications and is working on her first novel. She and her husband and two daughters reside in Oakland, California.

You can email Peggy with movies you’d like to see reviewed at Psugarman7@aol.com