4) Adaptation
Another movie focusing on a neurotic screenwriter with surreal elements is the 2002 film adaptation, directed by recent Academy Award winner Spike Jonze and written from an apparently deeply personal place by Charlie Kaufman. The first giveaway that the movie is about Charlie Kaufman himself is that the name of the movie’s protagonist is…Charlie Kaufman. Indeed, the whole movie is a twisted retelling of the story behind the movie itself: Kaufman is hired to write an adapted screenplay for the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, can’t come up with a suitable script for it, and writes the story of his inability to adapt the book into his screenplay. Charlie Kaufman Incepted us almost ten years before Inception came out.
Through the character of this actually-fictional twin brother character of Donald (even though the made-up “Donald Kaufman” received a screenplay credit and Oscar nomination IRL), Charlie Kaufman seems to be exploring two sides of his own ambition. On one hand he feels at times as though he’s achieving some kind of truth and authenticity in his storytelling, and on the other hand, he is potentially sacrificing career success for the sake of artistic integrity and a stubborn notion of righteousness that may not even be worthwhile. It’s a delicious exploration of that age-old dichotomy of art and commerce, with added flavors of general misanthropy and self-loathing.
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