Adaptation

[shaniqua]

Originally posted by RobTheGood


I don't think she is?!

maybe i missed her..

she plays the makeup artist for being john malkovich that donald dates.

[Ugly]

ok, here's my theory on the film, I'm wondering if anyone else flies with it: I saw the whole flick is basically an in-joke about screenwritting. At the beginning Charlie says "I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcome obstacles to succeed in the end." And the first 2 acts of the film are really Charlie just struggling with the script and writting and intercut with the backstory of cooper and streep, etc. etc. And the film, while interesting, isn't really going anywhere. So Charlie asks Donald to come and help him with his script. The second Donald comes to help him with the script, it turns into a forumlaic plotboiler about sex, guns, chases and someone learns a life lesson in the end and Charlie learns a life lesson due to Donald's sacrifice (don't and the dues ex machina of the fuckin crocodile at the end. that had me howling at that point it was so random) So, if you look at the credits it says the film was written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman (even though Donald Kaufman doesn't exist). It seems like that too, act 1-2 were written by Charlie, act 3 was written by Donald. Adaptation.

Anyhoo, that's just how I read the flick. Aside from that, though, the best stuff in the film came from Donald and Charlie's exchanges:

Donald: Listen, I need a cool way to kill people. Don't worry, for my script.
Charlie: I don't know that kind of stuff.
Donald: Oh, come on, man, please? You're the genius.
Charlie: Here you go. The killer's a literature professor. He cuts off little chunks from his victims' bodies until they die. He calls himself "the deconstructionist".

Donald: I'm putting in a chase sequence. So the killer flees on horseback with the girl, the cop's after them on a motorcycle and it's like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse.
Charlie: And they're still all one person, right?

[Travis Meekz]

Originally posted by Ugly
[b]ok, here's my theory on the film, I'm wondering if anyone else flies with it: I saw the whole flick is basically an in-joke about screenwritting. At the beginning Charlie says "I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcome obstacles to succeed in the end." And the first 2 acts of the film are really Charlie just struggling with the script and writting and intercut with the backstory of cooper and streep, etc. etc. And the film, while interesting, isn't really going anywhere. So Charlie asks Donald to come and help him with his script. The second Donald comes to help him with the script, it turns into a forumlaic plotboiler about sex, guns, chases and someone learns a life lesson in the end and Charlie learns a life lesson due to Donald's sacrifice (don't and the dues ex machina of the fuckin crocodile at the end. that had me howling at that point it was so random) So, if you look at the credits it says the film was written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman (even though Donald Kaufman doesn't exist). It seems like that too, act 1-2 were written by Charlie, act 3 was written by Donald. Adaptation.]

I just saw this movie the other night and I love your explaination. On further thought I think the movie's ending was kind of a metaphor for life also. Charlie's life and spirit were going nowhere, always worrying and thinking about life too much that he didn't live it. I think when he asked him for the advice on the movie, he also asked advice for living, which Donald gave him. His movie, and his life, then both got better when Donals explained how they both should be viewed and lived.

[oui henri]

I saw it last week and i liked it.

[StarlaZero]

i just saw this last weekend. i am now a convinced charlie kaufman fan. i loved loved loved being john malkovich. and i thought i wouldn't like adaptation, because i normally can't STAND nicolas cage. he strikes me as generally kinda untalented. granted, that might be just because he picks bad roles, like you guys were saying. but he was incredible in this.
and the dial tone scene was improvised?! wow.

i cannot wait for the dvd.

and, i'm all pumped up for kaufman's next one, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

oh yeah. my take on adaptation (i think there's about 10 different ways you could look at this film, and say, yeah, it's about...that!): i think it's about WRITING in general. it draws a nice comparison between meryl streep's character's struggle with writing her book, interviewing her subject, getting drawn into his life, and charlie writing his script, and being drawn into the book's author's life. i really like how kaufman takes things in layers, that go from biggest to minute. like how the beginning of the movie shows life beginning on earth. and that whole theme kind of loosely fits in with being john malkovich.

sarah

[Krafty]

It was very strange. I might of liked it if the violence wasn't such a shock to me.