Adaptation 2002

B+

I was disappointed as well. I thought it was kind of interesting to see a movie about a guy writing the movie that we’re watching. And I thought the orchid thief himself was a colorful character. The thing about a movie about writer’s block is that it exposes all the flaws in the movie. In Barton Fink the movie was Miller’s Crossing and it wasn’t directly referenced, instead it was changed to a “wrestling picture". But in this movie, they are directly referencing the difficulties in writing the movie you’re watching. So you see the flaws, you see that there isn’t enough material for a movie, that there is no development, that the characters aren’t that exciting, that they had to throw stuff in there to make it more acceptable to audiences. And I just have to agree with that.

Still, Charlie Kaufmann is a talented writer and there are some good lines. I don’t think the movie is up to the level of Being John Malkovich which I thought also had flaws but gave him the freedom to write about whatever he wanted. But there are little pieces in here that are really good. And the whole idea is an interesting exercise. The interaction between brothers Charlie and Donald are always entertaining (probably because they’re made up by Kaufmann), but Charlie is so bad in social situations that his interaction with everyone else is mostly just painful to watch. And his frustration at not being able to write gets old.

Parts of it might rate an A but other parts for me were lower. So I’ll give it a B+.

Owned on: Digital