Introduction
A great script full with twists and unpredictability influences the success of a film to a great extent. The 2003 award-winning film adaptation, a comedy drama written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze exemplifies creativity in filmmaking. It is wickedly playful in construction and records the torments of a screenwriter who is not adept at writing a movie about orchids. Ironically, the film manages to have the story effectively told in a captivating and exceptionally creative manner by incorporating two lines of stories into one. The film narrates the true story of Charlie Kaufman and his struggles to adapt the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (1998) into a film. As he struggles to write the script he narrates the ordeals of John Laroche and Orlean who feature in the book. The movie carries the thrilling and unpredictable experience of writing a script for a movie. The movie basically shows how Kaufman defied all the rules in scripting and yet got away with it so beautifully. Watching the film leaves viewers with curiosity and actively engages viewers in the challenges of its creation.
Dramatic Structure
The film Adaptation deviates from Aristotle’s rules for dramatic structure which advocated for three-act drama structure. This film follows a five-act structure and brings in a variety of settings and scenes as opposed to the suggestions by famous Greek philosopher about drama. In his Poetics Aristotle suggested that the plot of a drama should have three parts. In his words “a whole is what has a beginning, middle and an ending” (Corrigan, 7). However, some drama critics opposed Aristotle’s idea and came up with the five-act drama structure which comprises of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouncement.
The film employs a linear structure through the five-act dramatic structure. The filmmakers introduce the characters and their interrelationships. This happen in stages through an explanatory account (exposition) followed by action in which the intensity and challenges of scripting increases compelling the protagonist (Charlie Kaufman) to seek help from his brother Donald and even travels to New York top meet Orleans, the author on the book. Kaufman discovers that Laroche was using the Orchids to make a drug. He also witnesses kaufman and Laroche taking drugs and having sex. Orleans threatens to kill Kaufman and forces him to drive to a swamp where she intends to kill him. This scenes show heightened or increasing action in the film narration. The characters are than placed in a world that has challenges and trials to test the determination of the hero in the film.
Aristotle dramatic structure emphasizes that a drama should encompass only the time and space it would take to enact it (Corrigan, 10). In other words, a drama should occupy the space that would fit it on a stage. Aristotle emphasizes the unity of plot or action while the film integrates several different scenes and settings that would not fit into the time and space to allow for its presentation on a stage.
Film narration
The plot of the film and the story therein are closely related. The film elaborates two stories; that of Charlie Kaufman struggling to write a script for the film from Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief with assistance from his twin brother Donald Kaufman. The story of Laroche’s obsession with the orchids is also told as Kaufman progresses with writing the script and through the character of Orleans. The movie opens with Charlie lamenting on his flaws of being too fat, talentless and balding. On the other hand is his twin brother Donald Kaufman who sees his brother Charlie struggle with a script, decides to get into the business of scripting and enrolls for training in scriptwriting seminars under Robert McKee. Though Charlie scorns McKee, Donald attains some expertise in scriptwriting and Charlie enlists his help in adapting the book to screenplay.
Kaufman and Spike Jonze had previously done Being John Malkovich which was warmly received by many viewers and so the people’s expectations when the pair got together to produce Adaptation were even greater. According to several movie analysts Adaptation was a sequel to the Being John Malkovich. Viewers would therefore be inclined to critically analyse and compare the new film to the previous one. It was therefore prudent of Jonze and Kaufman to introduce a high level of creativity and wit in producing Adaptation.
The film adaptation reveals its story in an extraordinary way by incorporating the story of how the scriptwriters struggled to tell the original story as narrated in the book The Orchid Thief. The film reveals information this way to enhance originality of content, adapt the book to screenplay and make the film interesting by incorporating in it comedy. The story of the Orchid thief character (Laroche) in the book was too plain, perfect and unexciting. Kaufman and Jonze adapted opted to make the scripting of the film into the final product to spice up the original script. The movie is full of ambivalence about the commercial versus the artistic values of filming.
Jonze and Kaufman managed to put together an overall subjective film. Kaufman created scenes that merge creativity with facts to address the issue of film-making and specifically scripting. The film narrates a story which elaborates the challenges and successes of scripting. Some of the scenes appear libelous and the real Orlean and Laroche must have been compelled to sign waivers to abandon any legal recourse (Spence). Most of the scenes are hilarious and wildly audacious. Scenes such as Laroche driving Orlean in his car and taking her to a swamp are based on true events.
There are several characters in the film and the film does not limit itself to one main character. The main protagonist is Charlie Kaufman played by Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) who also plays the role of Charlie’s twin brother Donald Kaufman. Other characters are Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), John Laroche (Chris Cooper), and Robert McKee (Brian Cox) among others. The movie employs split screen photography to suit Nicholas cage to play the roles of twin brothers Charlie kaufman and Donal Kaufman. Cage plays the two roles parallel to the “actual” or original story based upon events in the book and starring Laroche and Orleans. Charlie narrates the story by reading from the book and helps in bringing in the other characters.
At the end of the film, viewers end up knowing more than the main characters. The narration manages to bring out two stories all which are effectively told helping the readers understand both the story in the book and the challenges of script writing.
The film having been inspired by a true story is anchored on several literal subjects. The two main storylines unfolding in the film are both true and so are the characters. The book was inspired by a man named John Laroche- a horticulturalist who was arrested for stealing a rare species of orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Florida (Spence). In the film, the characters of John Laroche and the author of the book Susan Orleans bear the same names. These help in emphasizing the themes of love, friendship, violence, drugs among others.
Though the events in the film are exaggerated, the events in real life are well represented and in most cases presented literary. When Charlie Kaufman was hired to write a script to adapt the book for screenplay, he found it challenging and unsuitable to use the book as it was. The character in Kaufman is taken literary from the book and the real life situation. The introduction of Donald Kaufman as a twin brother to Charlie Kaufman helps elaborate the character of Charlie Kaufman and emphasize the theme of friendship. Moreover exaggeration helps in developing these literal objects and characters to tell the story and emphasize some themes. He ends up writing a script on how hard it is to adapt The Orchid Thief into a film.
The film conveys several important meanings. First, the film exposes viewers to the challenges scriptwriters and filmmakers face in the course of coming up with blockbuster movies. Most importantly, the film appreciates the important role scriptwriters play in filmmaking (Spence). The film also lives upto its title adaptation. In one scene adaptation is described as a way to survive in the world.
While one part of the film focuses on Laroche and writer Orlean, the other is all about the tribulations Kaufman himself faces in writing the script. The emotions that Charlie goes through in the film are real and reflect what Kaufman was going through in real life when writing the script for the movie. Though some parts have been exaggerated and altered for cinematic purposes the film is a true reflection of scriptwriting. Some of the exaggerated scenes include the numerous masturbation scenes that Charlie endures.
The story in the film involves the fascination of mankind’s fascination with a flower-the orchid. The character of Laroche was inspired by John Laroche who was a Miami horticulturalist who collected endangered species of orchids from swamplands in his Seminole territory. The Laroche in the film is a student of orchids and is passionate about the flowers. He explains about the limitless shapes of the orchids can take to attract insects. However, there is twist to the story when Laroche uses the orchids to make drugs and so his main motivation of nurturing the orchids changes. Kaufman introduces himself into the events in the book when he pounces on Laroche and Orleans taking drugs made from the orchids and having sex.
The movie lives up to the title in several ways. The title of the film is basically a pun referring to the Darwinian Principles of adaptation and the ordeals of kaufman of adapting a book into screenplay. First, Kaufmans attempt at writing a script seems like he is trying to adapt to a role he had not practiced before. Secondly, the orchid flowers and change in limitless shapes and colors in order to attract insects. All the while, neither the flowers nor the insects realize what is happening and nature is trying to adapt the organisms to increase the reproduction rates and reduce chances of the plant going extinct.
Works Cited
Spence, D. "Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman Discuss Adaptation - Movies Feature at IGN ."
Movie Reviews, Trailers, Interviews, Wikis & Posters for Movies - IGN. N.p., 5 Dec.
2002. Web. 22 June 2012.
Corrigan, Timothy J. A Short Guide to Writing about Film (Sixth Edition). New York: Pearson
Longman, 2007. Print
