Unable to find a conventional story in The Orchid Thief, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman turns his own crisis into an increasingly self-referential adaptation.
- Scenes 1–9
Charlie inhabits an isolated, self-condemning world while Orlean’s book supplies a distant model of obsession.
- Scenes 10–88
Charlie wants to write honestly and make flowers matter, while also longing to be desired and understood.
- Scenes 89–105
He leaves his familiar writing room and goes to Florida to search for the story firsthand.
- Just before
- Scene 120
Laroche fumes about being fired as Charlie’s Florida research montage ends in boredom at the beach.
- Scene 121
Orlean asks Laroche to keep talking, but he says orchids no longer interest him and hangs up.
- Scene 122
Charlie listens as a man pitches a conventional twist-filled screenplay, while Orlean’s research montage shows her growing bored.
- Scene 123
This scene
