Adapting

In Adaptation, Charlie Kaufman shows the struggle that a writer goes through getting something from an idea to a finished product. He showed how it is much harder to write something that you truly care about, than when you don’t. He cared about what Susan Orlean would think about his screenplay, so he wanted to make it good. He looked up to her so much that he didn’t think he could make a movie that would be as good as her book. I think his lack of faith in himself is common in writers.

The relationship between Orlean and LaRoache was an extreme example between the writer and the person being interviewed. It showed that it was necessary to actually meet the person. Orlean would not have learned many things about LaRoache had she just talked to him over the phone. Their relationship also showed that a journalist, or anyone who is interviewing someone, should not jump to conclusions about someone right away. In the movie it seemed like Orlean was ready to write about what a weirdo LaRoache was. When she actually started listening to what he was saying she realized how interesting he was.

The need for a quality interview was also shown with Kaufman. Many people in the movie pointed out how his screenplay would probably be easier to write if he just met with Orlean. Meeting with her could have helped him figure out the best way to turn her book into a movie. He could have got more personal stories about her and LaRoache that he could put in his movie.

I thought the best part of the movie was that all the things Kaufman’s character in the movie said was wrong with movies were stuck in at the end. He said he didn’t want to change Orlean’s book into an action movie with car chases and violence, but that is what most people would leave Adaptation remembering most. I think Kaufman did this to show the irony and absurdity of trying to make a quality movie in Hollywood.