Abornewords

There are movies you see and wonder how you missed out when they hit theaters. Adaptation is one of those! Let me try to explain. It's like picking a scab and then watching it begin to heal again. The process seems all to normal until you really think about the science involved in the reproduction of skin (cells). Mitosis, like the asexual nature of plant cell reproduction, is really about restoring life or more clearly, creating it.

Adaptation (The Movie) takes off when a screenwriter becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with the storyline of a book called The Orchid Thief. His quest to turn the book into a movie with substance presents adventures almost unimaginable. Brilliance, comedy, tragedy, and love are the result. It's easy to see why this movie won two Golden Globes.

The movie was to be centered on a force in nature. The impact of this force was suppose to be like something in another realm, like outer space planets, creating a breathtaking experience for movie goers, all over the orchid in its beauty. The difficulty came in telling the story simply. How could the screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicholas Cage) keep the content of Susan Orlean's (played by Meryl Streep) story in context without complicating the scenes or making them all about someone else?

Chris Cooper Plays John LaRoche

The screenwriter struggled with his own feelings about whether a flower could be beautiful enough to exist as the leading object of a film. His own revelation happened when he accepted the fact that life happens in order for him to truly make it about the flower. The challenge was to build characters who not only had personality but their own unique qualities, something to help hold the attention of an audience.  He didn't fall short on the task. Each of the characters had identifiable things that make them interesting enough to contribute to the adventure of the film. The struggles of the character in the midst of the flowers glory was a real tug-a-war. The wild ride of watching it play out in the movie was seeing the true journey of a writer and how brilliance, tragedy, comedy, and love could exist without taking the shine away from the beautiful orchid.

Horticulturalist, students, writers, scientist, teachers, and even action film lovers will get a kick out of this one, finding beauty in more than just the orchid.  The story of creation happening in a movie.  It's like real time for a film.  Wow!  It's very, very creative.