Adaptation
The film is a genius’s work. There are stories in the stories! In my point of view, the film has at least four stories which are included one by one.
The basic story is about Susan and John. It tells us how they know and get close into each other, which is partly includes in the (you can regard the book as another tiny story). But this story just exists in a character’s mind, a screenwriter named Charlie(c). There are some evidences to prove it. First of all, the story begins with an process of human evolution, from the volcanic eruption to Susan writes her book in front of the desk. It’s just the same as Charlie(c)’s idea of the beginning of Susan’s story (Charlie(c)’s idea showed up at about fortieth minutes at the film). Secondly, Charlie(c) thinks Susan is a pretty, sensitive girl, who gets tired of daily life and want to know what exactly passion is. Susan acts as what he describes, even thinking the same sentences “I wanna know how people feel like to care about something passionally”. What’s more, after a famous Hollywood screenwriter told Charlie(c) something inside the major character (Susan) must to be changed in order to give out a thrilling ending, Susan’s life became different. She cheats her husband, takes drugs, try to kill people, etc. All in all, Susan and John’s story happens the same as the Charlie(c)’s imagination, which means the story is fake.
Charlie(c)’s story includes Susan’s. it’s about a screenwriter named Charlie(c)’s trying to adapt a book. However, Charlie(c) also exists only in a character’s mind. The character’s name is Charlie (b) and he is also a screenwriter. This is quite obvious since he said he wrote himself into the drama when Charlie (b) chatted with his brother Donald.
Donald devotes himself in writing typical Hollywood drama. But actually, Charlie (b) and Donald is the same person, because Charlie (b) knows what the famous Hollywood screenwriter said about the brother screenwriters of Casablanca even no one told him before. In addition, Charlie (b) blames himself so much of Donald’s death. But at the end of the film, we can see “he” feels relaxed instead of pity as his adaptation comes to an end. That’s really weird. From that point of view, Charlie (b) still not a “real” person; he is imaged by Charlie (a), who “lives” in the real world. It goes without saying when Charlie (a) mutters ”who is going to play me ? ”at the end of the movie.
From the analyze above, we can say Charlie (a)‘s story is quite complicated. He is a screenwriter, he loves a girl called Emilia and he is going to tell a story about a screenwriter called Charlie (b) wants to write a story about a screenwriter called Charlie (c) tries to adapt a film from a book written by Susan.
The film is so complicated that I’m not sure whether I made myself clear. By the way, the real screenwriter of the film is a man named Charlie!
正片
