I can't believe how many people posting here (and even some published critics) don't get the ending. I'm reading so much about what a letdown and a failure the third act is. THAT'S THE JOKE, FOLKS! This is a comedy!
When Charlie, understandably at his wits' end trying to accommodate the Hollywood conceit of adapting a nonfiction book into a linear, structured drama, invites brother Donald to New York to help him, the film becomes the cheap thriller that Donald would write. What choice has Charlie got? Knowing what Hollywood expects of him, and realizing that the task set before him is not only probably impossible but inherently ridiculous anyway (why must every decent book, no matter the content or style, become a movie?), he simply must deliver. Doesn't matter if what he delivers is good, it must merely be graspable. Kaufman and Jonze may seem to be making the audience the butt of their joke, but in fact they are letting us in on the joke, which is this:
Writing may be a tortuous process, but writing movies to Hollywood's "standards" can be a kaleidoscopically ludicrous process, often pointless, often meaningless, often futile--but that's what the paycheck's for.
Charlie adapted, but not toward perfection as Darwin's misleading words have us believe, merely toward a state more suited to surviving in his current environment: Hollywood. That's what evolution is; not changing for the better but changing to fit in better and therefore last longer.
The real Kaufman is a great enough writer to make unsavvy people think he's a lousy writer in the end. That took guts. This movie is brilliant from beginning TO END!
When Charlie, understandably at his wits' end trying to accommodate the Hollywood conceit of adapting a nonfiction book into a linear, structured drama, invites brother Donald to New York to help him, the film becomes the cheap thriller that Donald would write. What choice has Charlie got? Knowing what Hollywood expects of him, and realizing that the task set before him is not only probably impossible but inherently ridiculous anyway (why must every decent book, no matter the content or style, become a movie?), he simply must deliver. Doesn't matter if what he delivers is good, it must merely be graspable. Kaufman and Jonze may seem to be making the audience the butt of their joke, but in fact they are letting us in on the joke, which is this:
Writing may be a tortuous process, but writing movies to Hollywood's "standards" can be a kaleidoscopically ludicrous process, often pointless, often meaningless, often futile--but that's what the paycheck's for.
Charlie adapted, but not toward perfection as Darwin's misleading words have us believe, merely toward a state more suited to surviving in his current environment: Hollywood. That's what evolution is; not changing for the better but changing to fit in better and therefore last longer.
The real Kaufman is a great enough writer to make unsavvy people think he's a lousy writer in the end. That took guts. This movie is brilliant from beginning TO END!