Tiny Role Tuesday – Brian Cox

This is a weekly review of an outstanding performance in a film which is very limited or a general cameo. Suggestions for what you would like to see saluted are welcome.

The Film:
Adaptation (2002) dir. Spike Jonze

The Role:
Cox plays Robert McKee, a script-writing seminar speaker, who hates voiceovers, will get irritated by saying that nothing happens in life and thinks Casablanca is the greatest screenplay ever written.

Before We Meet Him…
Charlie Kaufman is having trouble writing his screenplay, an adaptation of “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean. He is timid and has trouble talking to people. Adding to his troubles is his twin brother Donald, who devises a plan to stop mooching off of Charlie by also becoming a screenwriter. Donald decides to attend one of McKee’s seminars and begins writing his own screenplay, The 3. McKee’s seminars change Donald’s life and gives him plenty of rules…wait, principles to help him finish his screenplay. Charlie’s difficulties continue and are confounded further when The 3 is sold for a large sum by Charlie’s agent. Down to his last options, Charlie finally gives in and attends McKee’s seminar.

When We Meet Him…
Charlie doesn’t really think much of McKee when he first sees him. He is lost in his own thoughts, is incredibly uncomfortable and wants to leave. He reminds himself of this in voiceover in his own head, until McKee shouts

“And God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”

He then has Charlie’s strict attention. But that’s not the last time he’s heard. Near the end of the seminar, McKee starts fielding questions from the attendees. Charlie finally gets around to asking what to do about his script as far as keeping things closer to reality, where characters don’t change and nothing really happens. Needless to say, McKee isn’t amused.

”Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your f-cking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every f-cking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every f-cking day, someone, somewhere makes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life. AND WHY THE F-CK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it. I don't have any bloody use for it.”

Charlie is shaken to the core. He cannot go back home without getting a more thorough explanation and talking in depth about his script to McKee. After convincing him to talk at a bar, Charlie explains his intentions of wanting to present the story without sensationalizing it and making it more about disappointment. McKee explains his reasoning.

“I'll tell you a secret. The last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit. Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina. Your characters must change, and the change must come from them. Do that, and you'll be fine.”

Charlie is thrilled, gives McKee a hug and begins to get closer to an ending and the completion of his script.

My Thoughts:
The great thing that Cox/McKee does at this point of the film is flip it on its side. Charlie talks inside his head the whole film up until the point that McKee yells at him. His words dictate the entire tone shift of the film to have no more voiceover, until the very end of the film, in which he remembers him again. Even the rant doesn’t necessarily affect him from the actual words, but makes Charlie realize that he and Donald aren’t the only ones who know his script is in trouble. After he sees the passion McKee puts into his feelings, he must go to him for help, so his passion can spill over to his script. Additionally, Cox does the interesting thing in that he screams at Charlie when asked a question publicly, then calmly advises when in private. The film follows Charlie’s rules for the first two acts, but McKee shows up and follows his rules…sorry, principles. That shows the authority in Cox/McKee. Charlie doesn’t trust anything McKee does, even as he’s in his class, but as soon as he tells Charlie to do something, he does it without any question. Not to mention, his suggestion is to get a good ending. He also remembers Donald attending class and reminds Charlie that Casablanca is the greatest screenplay ever written and is written by twins. Therefore, Charlie has his ending. Not only does McKee dictate what Charlie should do to fix the script, but also how to end it.