For my film class, we had to watch a movie called Adaptation. It is about a screenwriter named Charlie who wants to adapt The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean, into a movie. The film actually shows clips of both Charlie’s life, and three years prior, when the events of The Orchid Thief occurred. Eventually, Charlie and his twin brother, Donald, go to meet Susan Orlean and follow her to where John Laroche lives. John Laroche is a man fascinated with flowers, mainly orchids, who met Susan in her novel. She and John find Charlie and Donald spying on them and decide to kill them. They follow them to the Fakahatchee, where Susan and John wandered to find rare orchids. In the process, Charlie ends up losing Donald and Susan loses John as they both die. Charlie returns to his home and wraps up his screenplay, filled with confidence. Before this experience, Charlie was socially awkward, convincing himself he was a fool, unlike his brother.
The movie was like initially telling two stories at once, and then merging them together into one. What’s really interesting is that the movie is about wanting to make an adaptation of a book, when the book is already partly adapted into the movie. It’s like the finished product is already being shown to us. We jump between Charlie’s life and Susan’s life until their undesirable interaction. I recommend this film. It’s honestly not that bad.