Screen Writers

Writer's block: screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) in Adaptation. Photo Ben Kaller/AFP/Getty Images.

Watching a writer at work is like watching hair grow, only without the tension and humour. But for some reason, filmmakers love the challenge of bringing the writer’s life to the big screen, where it usually bears no resemblance to reality: an insecure and procrastinating recluse in sweatpants who checks e-mail every three minutes. Instead, movies about writers feature jealous rivals, dramatic “aha!” moments of creative inspiration, fits of passion, suicidal tendencies and, that filmmaking goldmine, writer’s block. With this week’s release of Capote, it’s a good time to take a look at other memorable movie treatments of the writing life.

The Lost Weekend (1945) (Dir. Billy Wilder)
The plot: A groundbreaking, unflinching vérité-style “issue movie,” The Lost Weekend follows tortured alcoholic and failed writer Don Birnam (matinee idol Ray Milland, cast against type) on a five-day bender.
Creative inspiration: Not much. In fact, desperate for money to buy booze, Don even tries to pawn his precious typewriter, only to find out the pawnshops are all closed for Yom Kippur.
On-the-job hazards: The DTs, scored here with haunting B-movie theremin music.
Depiction of writer’s block: In adapting Charles R. Jackson’s novel of the same name, Wilder and co-writer Charles Brackett change the trigger for Don’s bender from his conflict over his bisexuality to writer’s block.

The Shining (1980) (Dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Photo Warner Bros/Getty Images.

Plot: Based on a Stephen King novel, frustrated would-be writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at a haunted Colorado hotel, bringing along his cowed wife and clairvoyant young son.
Creative inspiration: Demon-driven delusions, followed by hours locked alone in an empty ballroom.
On-the-job hazards: Isolation, an outdoor maze and an axe.
Depiction of writer’s block: In the film’s creepiest scene, Jack’s wife (Shelley Duvall) looks at his manuscript and finds out her husband has spent the entire winter writing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” over and over and over again.

Misery (1990) (Dir. Rob Reiner)
The plot: In another writer horror-thriller based on a novel by Stephen King, successful hack novelist turned serious author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is held hostage by a deranged nurse named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) who forces him to revive his series of historical romance novels.
Creative inspiration: To get Paul to write, Annie tortures him with a sledgehammer and an electric carving knife.
On-the-job hazard: Coming face to face with his “number one fan.”
Depiction of writer’s block: Very little. Even though Paul is drugged most of the time, he manages to work to Annie’s specifications. He is, after all, writing to save his life.

Barton Fink (1991) (Dir. Joel Coen)
The plot: In this part send-up, part homage to 1930s Hollywood, John Turturro plays Barton Fink, a left-leaning playwright loosely based on Clifford Odets, who is summoned to Hollywood to write a wrestling picture.
Creative inspiration: Fink looks to the Faulkner-esque W.P. Mayhew (John Mahoney), a famed novelist on studio payroll, for mentoring, only to find out that the great man is actually a drunk whose secretary (Judy Davis) has written most of his work.
On-the-job hazard: A fellow skid-row hotel tenant and travelling salesman played with malevolent, sweaty zeal by John Goodman.
Depiction of writer’s block: Fink claims to be the poet of the common man, but he spends most of his time staring at his typewriter. He is so mythically and magnificently blocked that the condition should be called “writer’s embargo.”

Wilde (1997) (Dir. Brian Gilbert)
The plot: A biopic of the famed Irish-born dandy, author, playwright and quipster Oscar Wilde (Stephen Fry), following him from the peak of his success to his ruinous gross indecency trial and subsequent imprisonment.
Creative inspiration: In an allusion to one of his famous one-liners, a drunken Wilde is seen lying in the gutter, looking up at the stars.
On-the-job hazard: Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (Jude Law), Wilde’s vain and cruel younger lover.
Depiction of writer’s block: Broke and broken after his jail sentence, Wilde still manages to publish his most serious and meaningful work, De Profundis, an essay on faith, love and loss.

Wonder Boys (2000) (Dir. Curtis Hanson)

Photo Paramount Pictures/Getty Images.

Plot: Over the course of a weekend, author and Carnegie Mellon professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is left by his wife, discovers his married mistress is pregnant and is hounded by his agent to finish his long overdue second novel.
Creative inspiration: Marijuana.
On-the-job hazards: A jealous, cuckolded husband and an infatuated undergrad.
Depiction of writer’s block: More logorrhea than block. Terrified he’s no longer a “wonder boy” writer, Grady has spent seven years writing a 2,000-page manuscript that he is unable to finish. (The film is based on Michael Chabon’s second novel of the same name, which was published seven years after his acclaimed, wonder boy-ish debut The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.)

Adaptation (2002) (Dir. Spike Jonze)
The plot: In this twisted, meta-fictional story-within-a-story, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) attempts to adapt The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), a non-fiction book, about a collector and cloner of rare flowers.
Creative inspiration: Charlie attends a seminar led by screenwriting guru Robert McKee who tells him, “ God help you if you use voice-over in a script, my friend.”
On-the-job hazard: Sibling rivalry. Charlie’s twin brother, Donald, is essentially Charlie without the talent or insecurity, but with a highly marketable thriller script.
Depiction of writer’s block: Too paralyzed with self-loathing to work, Charlie masturbates to a book jacket photo of Susan Orlean.

Sylvia (2003) (Dir. Christine Jeffs)
The plot: The story of the tumultuous marriage of doomed poet and author Sylvia Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her womanizing poet husband Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig).
Creative inspiration: After several suicide attempts, Paltrow chirps to Craig, “I was dead, but I rose up again like Lazarus,” a corny foreshadowing of Plath’s famous poem Lady Lazarus (“Dying/ Is an art, like everything else./ I do it exceptionally well.”), which appeared in her final book, Ariel.
On-the-job hazards: A gas oven and crippling depression.
Depiction of writer’s block: Overshadowed by Hughes, Plath spends her days baking and staring blankly at her typewriter while her two children squall in their cribs.

Swimming Pool (2003) (Dir. François Ozon)
The plot: Seeking a writing retreat, famous British mystery writer Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) accepts an offer to stay at her publisher’s home in the South of France, only to have her idyll interrupted by his louche nymphet daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier).
Creative inspiration: Julie’s breasts, which director Ozon puts on frequent display. Initially irritated by Julie, Sarah’s writerly curiosity is soon piqued by Julie’s mood swings and sexual escapades.
On-the-job hazard: A dead body in the poolhouse.
Depiction of writer’s block: In a mid-career and mid-life slump, Sarah is tired of writing her Inspector Durwell mystery novels and is frustrated with her publisher and one-time lover’s lack of interest.

American Splendor (2003) (Dir. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini)
The plot: A biopic of Cleveland comic book writer and curmudgeon Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti). The real Pekar narrates the film and occasionally appears on camera to weigh in on the film’s depiction of his life.
Creative inspiration: A chance meeting with emerging underground comic artist R. Crumb leads to a friendship and creative partnership that launches Pekar’s career. Later, Pekar’s day-to-day frustrations are morphed on-screen into comic-book panels.
On-the-job hazard: The horror, pain and disappointment of daily life.
Depiction of writer’s block: An artist without an outlet until he meets Crumb, Pekar’s dead-end job as a file clerk in a hospital both drags him down and provides the inspiration for his writing.

Finding Neverland (2004) (Dir. Marc Forster)

Photo courtesy Alliance Atlantis.

The plot: A many-liberties-taken biopic about writer J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and the family of boys who inspired his famous Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.
Creative inspiration: Barrie and the boys’ raucous games of pirates and cowboys and Indians make their way into the script for Peter Pan.
On-the-job hazards: Theatre critics and the Edwardian bourgeoisie who question the nature of Barrie’s affection for his pre-pubescent muses.
Depiction of writer’s block: The film opens just as Barrie’s latest play has bombed. Adrift and lonely (his marriage has long run out of affection), Barrie is stumped for an idea for a new play, until he meets the boys one day in the park.

Rachel Giese writes about the arts for CBC.ca.