Adaptation: Introduction

Adaptation is a mind-blowingly bizarre and confusing film. It is a true story within a story based on a book. One is never quite sure what is part of Charlie's (the protagonist) screenplay, and what is based off of his actual experience writing the play. Not to mention that the entire thing is actually based off off the screenwriter of Adaptation's experiences! The whole concept is incredibly hard to conceive, yet somehow the viewer experiences an "A-ha!" moment at the conclusion of the film, where one realizes that the entire film is semi-self-referential. There is a definite split between the rational and the irrational two-thirds of the way through the film, but other than that it is up to the viewer's interpretation of it.