Great Scene: “Adaptation.”

When Charlie Kaufman meets screenwriting guru Robert McKee.

This may be one of the best scenes on screen for anyone who studies the craft of screenwriting. From the 2002 movie Adaptation, screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, book by Susan Orlean.

Plot: A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt ‘The Orchid Thief’ by Susan Orlean for the screen.

In these scenes, a desperate Charlie Kaufman, hopelessly stuck in a writer’s block, seeks out the advice of Robert McKee. A story told in two part. First, Kaufman attends a McKee seminar.

Here is the movie version of the scene.

One might think that after having been obliterated by McKee, Kaufman would turn tail and get the hell out of town. Instead, he is so desperate, Kaufman seeks out McKee for more advice.

The movie version of the scene.

Three things:

• You have to love the beginning part where Kaufman’s character is deep into his inner miasma of self-doubt expressed through voice-over narration which is interrupted by McKee bellowing: “God help you if you use voice-over in your work. It’s flaccid, sloppy writing.” That is ironic in the extreme and really funny.
• When McKee excoriates Kaufman about “real life,” his point underscores the severe disconnect Kaufman is experiencing: caught up in his head about the screenwriting project, yet at the same time in his persona experiences undergoing some real life dynamics.
• Then there is their final scene together in which McKee advises, “The last act makes the film… wow them at the end.” That is exactly what transpires in the final act of Adaptation. where the plot seemingly goes off the rails with drugs, sex, guns, alligators, brotherly confessions, and death.

Of course, this is all in keeping with Kaufman’s approach to the story in this movie which blurs the line between reality and fiction to the point where the real life screenwriter invents a twin brother (Donald) in the movie. It along with Barton Fink are two of the best movies about the screenwriting experience.

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