Adaptation
Mar. 6th, 2003 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gordonzolaIt’s rare that you can pinpoint the moment a movie starts to fail. Maybe that’s the crowning achievement of "Adaptation" the newest movie by Spike Jonze, the director of "Being John Malkovich". In Adaptation Nicholas Cage plays a insecure Hollywood writer who is trying to turn a non-Hollywood book into a screenplay and ends up making himself, and his floundering attempt to adapt the book, one of the central characters.
I actually found the whole pathetic-mess-of-a-writer-who-can’t-figure-out-how-to-write thing endearing for the first half of the movie. Maybe it’s because I’ve been having a hard time myself framing something I’ve been working on. Maybe because I saw it with a friend who’s in the process of writing her dissertation and it was fun to watch her squirm. Either way, I thought it was witty and over-acted in all the right ways to show the point of view of the main Nicholas Cage character. And the twin brother with no artistic pretensions pushing his writing seminar guidelines and non-sensical action-movie script was genuinely funny.
Unfortunately, I can’t describe where the movie goes wrong without spoiling, so if you don’t mind the ending being revealed,
I should have walked out during that Meryl Streep trip scene.
It’s very hard to show a trip scene in the movies. Don’t even try and mention "Easy Rider" because really, that was just embarrassing. I can only think of one that wasn’t laughably bad or crushingly boring: Matt Dillon in "Drugstore Cowboy". But then again, I haven’t seen that since it was in the theaters so I wouldn’t stake my reputation on it either.
The problem with trip scenes, as with watching real life tripping people when you are sober, is that they are boring! And nobody told me I was supposed to get fucked up to see Adaptation. Meryl Streep looks at her toes. Meryl Streep talks slowly. Meryl Streep laughs. Meryl Streep lies around with swamp plants. Where’s the fast-forward?
Unfortunately, that just foreshadowed the boring action scenes that take up the last quarter of the movie. I actually thought it was a really good concept to have the cliched big ending that the writing seminar teacher says is needed. But really, it just proved that Spike Jonze can’t direct action sequences. Every scene lingered too long. The brothers bond while they hide from danger. The joke wore off quickly and the audience squirmed, not from being challenged but by being bored. I wanted to yell, "Ok, we get it, can we move on now?"
The problem with parodying the big-payoff action genre, is that it begs the question what is this film saying so well that it can make fun of others? And the answer is really nothing. Except maybe that art-theater-type movie goers think people who go to action movies are a little simple. Jonze tries to immunize himself from the obvious criticism by having Artistic Cage berate himself at one point for putting himself centrally in his own script. "It’s self-indulgent. It’s simplistic. It’s solipsistic." etc. etc. Well, yes. And saying it out loud, might buy you the benefit of the doubt for awhile, but doesn’t make it less true.
Don’t get me wrong though. I like dwelling on the negative. I actually found this movie mostly enjoyable, just disappointing in its failure at the end. If the trip and action scenes had been shortened by two-thirds I think it would have been a success. Unfortunately, while making fun of "big payoff" movie genres, Adaptation relies too much on, what in retrospect, is its own cheap joke.
I actually found the whole pathetic-mess-of-a-writer-who-can’t-figure-out-how-to-write thing endearing for the first half of the movie. Maybe it’s because I’ve been having a hard time myself framing something I’ve been working on. Maybe because I saw it with a friend who’s in the process of writing her dissertation and it was fun to watch her squirm. Either way, I thought it was witty and over-acted in all the right ways to show the point of view of the main Nicholas Cage character. And the twin brother with no artistic pretensions pushing his writing seminar guidelines and non-sensical action-movie script was genuinely funny.
Unfortunately, I can’t describe where the movie goes wrong without spoiling, so if you don’t mind the ending being revealed,
I should have walked out during that Meryl Streep trip scene.
It’s very hard to show a trip scene in the movies. Don’t even try and mention "Easy Rider" because really, that was just embarrassing. I can only think of one that wasn’t laughably bad or crushingly boring: Matt Dillon in "Drugstore Cowboy". But then again, I haven’t seen that since it was in the theaters so I wouldn’t stake my reputation on it either.
The problem with trip scenes, as with watching real life tripping people when you are sober, is that they are boring! And nobody told me I was supposed to get fucked up to see Adaptation. Meryl Streep looks at her toes. Meryl Streep talks slowly. Meryl Streep laughs. Meryl Streep lies around with swamp plants. Where’s the fast-forward?
Unfortunately, that just foreshadowed the boring action scenes that take up the last quarter of the movie. I actually thought it was a really good concept to have the cliched big ending that the writing seminar teacher says is needed. But really, it just proved that Spike Jonze can’t direct action sequences. Every scene lingered too long. The brothers bond while they hide from danger. The joke wore off quickly and the audience squirmed, not from being challenged but by being bored. I wanted to yell, "Ok, we get it, can we move on now?"
The problem with parodying the big-payoff action genre, is that it begs the question what is this film saying so well that it can make fun of others? And the answer is really nothing. Except maybe that art-theater-type movie goers think people who go to action movies are a little simple. Jonze tries to immunize himself from the obvious criticism by having Artistic Cage berate himself at one point for putting himself centrally in his own script. "It’s self-indulgent. It’s simplistic. It’s solipsistic." etc. etc. Well, yes. And saying it out loud, might buy you the benefit of the doubt for awhile, but doesn’t make it less true.
Don’t get me wrong though. I like dwelling on the negative. I actually found this movie mostly enjoyable, just disappointing in its failure at the end. If the trip and action scenes had been shortened by two-thirds I think it would have been a success. Unfortunately, while making fun of "big payoff" movie genres, Adaptation relies too much on, what in retrospect, is its own cheap joke.
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no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 12:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 01:49 pm (UTC)hey buddy, don't get me wrong!
Shittiest road trip movie
Date: 2003-03-06 04:12 pm (UTC)Made in 1970, starring James Taylor(yes, the singer/songwriter...he should have stuck to the music) and Harry Dean Stanton. obliviot & I could only get thru 25 minutes of it, and that was too long.
I liked Adaptation generally, but yes, too slow, Meryl Streep was irritating, it was way too long...the seminar guy was good. Concept interesting.
Have you seen Bowling for Columbine?
I would like to hear your thoughts
There aren't many movies I feel compelled to see...I heard Coyote Ugly was a stellar rental, but I forget who told me....hmmm
My fave movie is still Harold & Maude.
And I Spit On Your Grave
Re: Shittiest road trip movie
Date: 2003-03-07 01:48 am (UTC)Re: Shittiest road trip movie
Date: 2003-03-08 12:00 pm (UTC)I've never seen Blacktop but your review makes me want to. I loved "Bowling for Columbine" but one of my oldest friends (though not as old as you guys) worked on it so I don't trust my impartiality. I especially liked the animated history of America part.
There's a good criticism of it here in my friend Miss Ruckus's journal, despite the use of the word "Amerika" which is soooooo 1975.
Re: Shittiest road trip movie
Date: 2003-03-08 04:30 pm (UTC)My favourite drug trip movie would be Fear & Loathing in LV...that was fun. Especially inside the casino after the acid & ether, when the carpeting came to life, and the gambling patrons turned into monsters.
I dozed thru some of Adaptation, (plus we were watching a ripped copy on K's computer)so you filled me in some. Maybe it's because I really don't have the attention span for movies, I usually miss about 20 -30 minutes of every movie I see just because I daydream, fall asleep, what ever
Bowling 4 Columbine was probably the only movie I saw in the past year that had any impact on me.
And yes, I read the letter in missruckus'LJ, and I was thinking after I watched the movie he(Michael) needed to address issues of racism and the (failed & expensive) war on drugs. Perhaps another movie. Did you read Stupid White Men? Am surprised that our smalltown library has it, and it is checked out til the end of the month.
I'm sick w/ fever, going to lie down, but will share my views on the social & economic differences between working in Novato & Binghamton (I got a job at the YMCA, and am working in the heart of the downtown area) in my LJ this week.
ANd hey, can you send me my wonderful furry hat? My head misses it. I'll pay postage!
no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 04:29 pm (UTC)does that mean you didn't enjoy trainspotting's myriad portrayals of the drug experience?
(or rather, the withdrawl experience, as that's the most memorable...)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 04:50 pm (UTC)stoner vs. drinker
p.s. trainspotting