I finally got around to seeing Adaptation last night. You know, the latest film from the guys who did Being John Malkovich.
My brain hurts.
I have to review it. I don’t quite know how. The scary thing is that I can sum up the plot quite easily – but I can’t explain it anywhere near as easily.
“Adaptation” is about a guy, who gets hired to adapt a book into a screenplay but gets completely blocked trying to do so. His attempts to get unblocked, aided by his brilliantly tacky twin brother, wind up having catastrophic results.
See? Simple plot summary.
But the film is really about the importance of passion, of loving without fear, of being able to adapt to the world’s oddities, about how life can be both beautifully simple and immensely difficult if you just have something to care desperately about. It’s a mental exercise in the nature of reality and creativity, a brain-bending look at the process of writing.
It’s Kaufman and Jonze, through and through. They make a fantastic team.
I feel like I should be writing a 15-page paper on “Adaptation,” not an 800-word review.
