Recursive structure and infinite regress: a screenplay adapted from Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation offered in lieu of a review.

 Recursive structure and infinite regress: a screenplay adapted from Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation offered in lieu of a review.

by

Nathan Tyree

FADE IN. INT. DAY. A HOME OFFICE.

NATHAN TYREE sits in front of a computer, typing madly. He is frantically trying to find the proper way to begin a review of the film Adaptation, which is based on the book The Orchid Thief. As he types, we hear his thoughts in VOICE OVER.

TYREE
(V.O.)
How to begin? All right, we fade in at the beginning of recorded history. No. That’s been done to death. Okay, we start with me in a theater, watching the film and eating popcorn. No. Maybe we could begin by watching me decide how to review the film. Yeah. That’s it. Okay.
We watch as Tyree stares blankly at the screen for a moment. He’s chosen his method, but doesn’t know how to put it into words. Just then, his twin brother, DAVID enters from another room.

DAVID
What are ya’ doin’?

TYREE
Trying to review Adaptation, that film Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman made after Being John Malkovitch. I can’t figure out how to do it though.

DAVID
That’s easy, bro’. Just talk about the movie. In that film reviewing seminar I attended, Dr. Turgidson said that to review a movie you have to discover the arc of the review. He said that each review has
 to have a coherent structure, a definite beginning, middle and-
TYREE
(cutting David off)
There are no rules to reviewing, David. The best reviewers create something entirely new every time write.

DAVID
Not rules. Guidelines. Shortcuts. You know.

TYREE
(Growing exasperated)
There are no shortcuts. Look, I’m stuck here.

DAVID
Just explain the plot.

TYREE
Okay. It’s about Charlie Kaufman, and his twin brother Donald. Charlie is trying to adapt this book, called The Orchid Thief into a screen play, but can’t. See, the book doesn’t really have a plot. It’s about this journalist, Susan Orlean, which everybody pronounces OR-LEEN, as if that isn’t annoying, who goes to Florida to meet this toothless guy who steals orchids out of a swamp even though they’re endangered species, and did I mention the toothless guy lost his teeth in a horrible car accident which killed his mother and aunt?

DAVID
That has to be the longest run on sentence I’ve ever heard.

TYREE
See. I can’t write this. I can’t even talk about it properly.

DAVID
No. Come on. You’re doing fine. So, what else happens?

TYREE
Kaufman decides to write himself into the screenplay.

DAVID
What a stupid idea.

TYREE
No, it really works. Then he writes his twin brother Donald in as well.

DAVID
Okay, I like that.

TYREE
I thought you would.

DAVID
I bet no one’s ever written themselves into a work of fiction before.

TYREE
Actually, it’s been done a lot. Norman Mailer used to do it a lot. Mailer was always observing Mailer observing history. And, of course, Kurt Vonnegut wrote himself into Breakfast of Champions to great effect.

DAVID
Oh yeah. Great Book.

TYREE
Yeah. But the really interesting thing about Adaptation is that the structure creates an infinite regress.

DAVID
What?

TYREE
You know. It’s recursive.

DAVID
I don’t understand.

TYREE
Look. Don’t think of it as a movie. Just consider the screenplay Kaufman wrote. Now, in that screenplay Kaufman is writing a screenplay, which turns out to be about Kaufman writing a screenplay. Right?

DAVID
Right.

TYREE
Now, we see that it is a screenplay in which he writes a screenplay about writing a screenplay. Now, what’s that last screenplay I just mentioned about?\

DAVID
Him writing a screenplay.

TYREE
Which is about?

DAVID
Him writing a screenplay.

TYREE
Right. See, no matter how many levels down you go, there’s always another level. It’s like one of those M.C. Escher drawings. It’s an infinite regression.

DAVID
Okay. I get it. But why is that so interesting?

TYREE
It’s like a loop. Self reference causes funny things to happen.

DAVID
Then what happens?

TYREE
The two of them follow Orlean to Florida, to try and learn more about her. It’s for the screenplay, to make it better.

DAVID
Why not just call her up, and ask her questions?

TYREE
Kaufman has problems with human interaction. He’s got this self-loathing thing going.

DAVID
Like you?

TYREE
(V.O.)
Damn. I knew he’d see the connection. Okay, so maybe I am fat and bald, and sweat too much. But at least my mom likes me.

TYREE
(to David)
No. Not like me.

CUT TO
A DORM ROOM. DAY.
A young man sits reading words on his computer screen. He is reading a review of Adaptation. The review is written in the form of a screenplay, and includes the reviewer as a character.

YOUNG MAN
What a stupid way to review a movie.

He reaches up and turns the computer off. Stands up, and walks to a mini refrigerator to retrieve a beer. He plops down on the edge of his bed, and takes a long slow pull from the can. Then we

CUT TO
INT. DAY. HOME OFFICE.
Tyree is still attempting to write his review. We watch as he types. His brother, DAVID, is lying on the floor dead. A bloody copy of Screen Writing For Idiots lays next to him. He has been bludgeoned with it.

TYREE
(V.O.)
The film uses voice over narration to pull the viewer inside Kaufman’s head. One character then denounces the use of voice over as sloppy, lazy writing. I couldn’t agree more. Wait a minute. What am I saying? I love voice over.

The camera moves in close to the computer screen and we watch as the following words appear:
“Nicholas Cage (Wild at Heart, Leaving Las Vegas) plays both the real writer, Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovitch), and his fictional twin brother Donald in this outlandish film. Chris Cooper (American Beauty, Lone Star) plays Laroche, the orchid thief. Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice, Kramer Vs Kramer) plays Susan Orlean (this should be pronounced Or-Lee-on, with very little stress on the “n”, almost as if it were silent).

This is a tale told with frantic energy, unending creativity and a touch of madness. Director Jonze has found the perfect visual style to approach Kaufman’s strange writing. Kaufman has created a masterpiece of solipsism. He has created a character (who bears little resemblance to the real Charlie Kaufman, who like myself is neither bald nor fat), and used that character to lampoon not only himself, but also the entire film industry. The level of in jokes used make this a film that real movie buffs and holly insiders will cherish for years to come.

The other characters in the film are also great departures from their real counterparts. Orlean is not a gun toting, drug snorting, adulterous maniac. At least, she claims she’s not. But then, who can be sure. Laroche, I assume, is also different from how he is portrayed.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is Charlie’s brother Donald. Donald does not exist. Yet, he shares the writing credit on the film, and was even nominated for an academy award. In the past, a dog was once nominated for an Oscar (it’s a long story), but I don’t believe a fictional character has ever received that honor before. I’ve always hoped to see Allan Smithee win an Oscar, but that will probably never happen.

This film is pure genius. I frankly haven’t seen anything this good in quite some time. After watching The Matrix Reloaded, this was such a pleasant surprise. Unlike that other film, which was all flash, and no substance, Adaptation was a beautiful, intelligent film to be experienced and thought about at length.

CUT TO:
Tyree, leaning back from his computer. Smiling.

TYREE
(V.O.)
I know how the review ends. It ends with Tyree, leaning back from his computer, completely abandoning the screenplay format, and simply writing a few final thoughts on the film.

FADE OUT.

Now, a few notes:
Up until this film, the longest flashback I had seen (I refer here not to the duration of the flash back, but to how far back it flashes) was in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie has that beat by quite a little bit.

Considering the structure of this film made me think of others that have created something of a recursive structure. Man Bites Dog is one. The film version of Breakfast of Champions is another. I find something undeniably fascinating about this sort of thing.
And, to wrap up. I recommend this movie highly.
By the way folks: I'm sorry for the way this looks. Yes, I know what a screenplay should look like. I've even written a couple. I simply couldn't get the formatting to work right in this dialogue box. Sorry.