Adaptation is a film that almost defies  review. One reason I saw the movie was the  encounter I had with reviews of the movie I read online-it seems every review is of a different film. The enigmatic, self referential quality of the film reads like a joke being played on the audience.

First the film references real life characters that are convolved into a  plot around the adaptation of an  unadaptable book into a screenplay. The movie becomes about the quest to resolve the irresolution of this  problem. So early on one must act is this a dream or a dream of a dream? The adaptation of the book becomes a metaphor of how humans attempt to adapt to the irresolution and confusion and percieved meaninglessness of life.

In the end, fiction wins out over non fiction as the angst and self loathing of Charlie Kauffman give way to a theatre of the absurd with characters initiating  contrived actions to satisfy the screenwriter's need for  climax and denouement. He adapts reality to  suit the contrivance and trivializes the real life characters in the process.

I see the main them of the movie reflected in Susan Orleans's statement about  how everyone needs that one passion that drives their lives. The movie confuses passion and obsession..

Another esoteric theme that arises derives from the debate over adaptation versus translation in the discipline of hermeneutics. Which is truer to reality?

Choices in life seem to boil down to Self examination and hubris, Obsession leading to self destruction. Or  pursuit of passion , any passion without objective reference points.

Once Charlie determines to sacrifice the adaptation of an unadaptable non fiction book for the pursuit of an interesting story that will sell, all bets are off. Susan Orleans fascination with the Orchid theif’s passionate pursuit for the sake of passion gives way to an enactment- she becomes  involved in pornography, drugs, and eventuially seeks to murder the screenwriter to preserve her secrets. It is not exactly evident that this is what is acrually happening in the movie, but reflection demands this conclusion.

Charlie Kaufman's life on screen includes a twin brother who he at once loves and hates. The real life Charlie has no brother. Donald the alter ego gives balance to Charlie's life and in the end is sacrificed on the altar of the plot. So much is invented to satisfy the march of the plot to it’s sad end and even Laroche ends up being eaten by a gator.

Which brings me to one of the key metaphors of the movie- LaRoches's tattoo- an ouroborus- (BTW- that's Dana Scully's tattoo of X-Files as well) or snake eating it's own tail- an ancient gnostic symbol of eternity and self knowledge.

I think this ties into the cosmological construct of the pelastrating universe as a theory of how knowledge is stored and retrieved. Charlie's search and lack of discipline is a picture of this- he is extremely self consumed, examining his own motives and character ad infinitum. The theme of pursuit of passion without meaning keys into this.

Simulation of what Chris Cooper might look like in a Klein Bottle Hat. Get yours here.

Even the ending of the movie reflects the primitive idea of a self-sufficient Nature - a Nature, that is which, as in  Nietzsche, continually returns, within a cyclic pattern, to its own beginning. Charlie is satisfied and finds hope in the neat resolution he has for the problem he was originally presented with, but one wonders how long this hope will last since it is found in his own ability to manipulate words on a page.