Adaptation's Beginning and End

Adaptation is one of the stranger mainstream films in recent memory. The first time I watched it I sat through the entire film, took a 15 minute break, then immediately watched it again. I knew I had seen something, but I had no idea what. Deciphering the movies many layers and stories has been a challenge I've wholeheartedly enjoyed.

The movie starts several different ways. It starts with LaRoche driving to the Fakahatchee swamp while listening to the origin of species. Notice the squeal the tires makes when he turns right. It starts with Kaufman at a business dinner, discussing his feelings on adapting Orlean's book. It starts at the beginning of time, then loosely follows the development of life on this planet. Every one of these beginnings is described by Kaufman as he works on his screenplay. Even the screeching right turn LaRoche makes. It should be clear from this that we are not only watching the story Susan Orleans wrote, but also the process of turning that story into a movie. Let's look a little closer at one of these beginnings, Charlie Kaufman's dinner with a beautiful producer.

We learn several things here. First off, that we're going to get a lot of voice over, and only from Charlie Kaufman, though we knew that from the introductory credits. He's extremely self-conscious. We also learn that he wrote Being John Malkovich, a fact that happens to be true in the real world as well. We learn that it's that script that got him this opportunity for adapting Susan Orleans "The Orchid Thief." Most importantly, we learn what he does not want to do. He doesn't want to make it about guns, or drugs, or tack on a romantic story that was not in the book. These facts, especially these last ones, are absolutely critical for understanding the film, but they're tossed off so haphazardly it's incredibly easy to miss them.

The reason these facts are so critical is that this is exactly how the movie ends. The orchids become drugs. Orleans gets a gun. Orleans falls in love with LaRoche. It is exactly the Hollywood ending Kaufman explicitly stated he did not want to do. So, why? Why is the ending so completely the opposite of what he wanted. In order to understand that, we need to look at the structure of all the story lines that unfold.