Fails the Bechdel test
Adaptation.
2003. Directed by Spike Jonze, written by Susan Orlean and Charlie Kaufman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
11 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
While his latest movie Being John Malkovich (1999) is in production, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is hired by Valerie Thomas to adapt Susan Orlean's non-fiction book "The Orchid Thief" for the screen. Thomas bought the movie rights before Orlean wrote the book, when it was only an article in The New Yorker. The book details the story of rare orchid hunter John Laroche, whose passion for orchids and horticulture made Orlean discover passion and beauty for the first time in her life. Charlie wants to be faithful to the book in his adaptation, but despite Laroche himself being an interesting character in his own right, Charlie is having difficulty finding enough material in Laroche to fill a movie, while equally not having enough to say cinematically about the beauty of orchids. At the same time, Charlie is going through other issues in his life. His insecurity as a person doesn't allow him to act upon his feelings for Amelia Kavan, who is interested in him as a man. And Charlie's twin brother, pretentious Donald, has moved into his house with a goal of also becoming a screenwriter. Despite not admiring Donald as a screenwriter, Charlie asks for his advice. Together, they feel that there is some interesting subtext in the book on which Orlean herself can only elaborate, if only Charlie has the nerve to talk to her. If she can't or won't elaborate, they may have to find out the meaning of that subtext on their own.
- Released
- 14 Feb 2003
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 83 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 67 wins & 100 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kaufman 287 lines, man
- Orlean 134 lines, woman
- Laroche 128 lines, man
- Donald 98 lines, man
- Valerie 31 lines, woman
- Mckee 28 lines, man
- Alice 23 lines, woman
- Jerry 22 lines
- Margaret 19 lines, man
- Subtitle 16 lines
Full cast, 39 people
- Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman / Donald Kaufman
- Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean
- Chris Cooper as John Laroche
- Tilda Swinton as Valerie Thomas
- Jay Tavare as Matthew Osceola
- Litefoot as Russell
- Roger Willie as Randy
- Jim Beaver as Ranger Tony
- Cara Seymour as Amelia Kavan
- Doug Jones as Augustus Margary
- Gary Farmer as Buster Baxley
- Peter Jason as Defense Attorney
- Gregory Itzin as Prosecutor
- Curtis Hanson as Orlean's Husband
- Agnes NaDene Baddoo as Orlean Dinner Guest
- Paul Fortune as Orlean Dinner Guest
- Paul Jasmin as Orlean Dinner Guest
- Lisa Love as Orlean Dinner Guest
- Wendy Mogel as Orlean Dinner Guest
- David O. Russell as Orlean Dinner Guest
- Judy Greer as Alice the Waitress
- Maggie Gyllenhaal as Caroline Cunningham
- Bob Stephenson as David
- Bob Yerkes as Charles Darwin
- Lynn Court as Laroche’s Dad
- Roger E. Fanter as Laroche’s Uncle
- Sandra Lee Gimpel as Laroche’s Mom
- Caron Colvett as Laroche’s Wife
- Larry Krask as EMT
- Ron Livingston as Marty Bowen
- Brian Cox as Robert McKee
- John Etter as McKee Lecture Attendee
- Ray Berrios as Police Officer
- Nancy Lenehan as Kaufman’s Mother
- John Cusack as John Cusack (uncredited)
- Catherine Keener as Catherine Keener (uncredited)
- John Malkovich as John Malkovich (uncredited)
- Curt Clendenin as Restaurant Customer (uncredited)
- Donald Dowd as Cafe Customer (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 203
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 to 10 | 13 | 17 |
| 11 to 15 | 3 | 25 |
| 16 to 20 | 2 | 17 |
| 21 to 25 | 6 | 15 |
| 26 to 30 | 2 | 29 |
| 31 to 35 | 1 | 22 |
| 36 to 40 | 6 | 23 |
| 41 to 45 | 3 | 3 |
| 46 to 50 | 5 | 13 |
| 51 to 55 | 18 | 21 |
| 56 to 60 | 6 | 9 |
| 61 to 65 | 4 | 8 |
| 66 to 70 | 4 | 3 |
| 71 to 75 | 0 | 11 |
| 76 to 80 | 1 | 13 |
| 81 to 85 | 1 | 4 |
| 86 to 90 | 8 | 14 |
| 91 to 95 | 4 | 3 |
| 96 to 100 | 2 | 0 |
| 101 to 105 | 3 | 0 |
| 106 to 110 | 2 | 16 |
| 111 to 115 | 4 | 1 |
| 116 to 120 | 16 | 21 |
| 121 to 125 | 2 | 34 |
| 126 to 130 | 6 | 33 |
| 131 to 135 | 9 | 14 |
| 136 to 140 | 1 | 8 |
| 141 to 145 | 9 | 26 |
| 146 to 150 | 0 | 1 |
| 151 to 155 | 2 | 4 |
| 156 to 160 | 2 | 5 |
| 161 to 165 | 2 | 6 |
| 166 to 170 | 3 | 14 |
| 171 to 175 | 0 | 12 |
| 176 to 180 | 0 | 9 |
| 181 to 185 | 2 | 55 |
| 186 to 190 | 1 | 17 |
| 191 to 195 | 18 | 41 |
| 196 to 200 | 24 | 55 |
| 201 to 203 | 10 | 11 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 24 are women's.
205 lines from women, 634 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
11 women and 23 men in the cast. 2 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 9 of 906.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 67 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 21% of the words (2,599), men 79% (9,942). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
1
Two men
44
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Spike Jonze (man)
- Written by
- Charlie Kaufman (man)
- From the novel by
- Susan Orlean (woman)
- Produced by
- Jonathan Demme (man), Edward Saxon (man), Vincent Landay (man)
- Shot by
- Lance Acord (man)
- Edited by
- Eric Zumbrunnen (man)
- Music by
- Carter Burwell (man)
- Production design by
- K.K. Barrett (man)
- Costumes by
- Casey Storm (man)
- Cast by
- Justine Arteta (woman), Kim Davis-Wagner (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 9 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 14 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
3 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 4 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 44 on average. Men: 41 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Cara Seymour 38, Tilda Swinton 42, Meryl Streep 53
Men
Litefoot 33, Jay Tavare 34, Nicolas Cage 38, Roger Willie 38, Doug Jones 42, Chris Cooper 51, Jim Beaver 52
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $19 million
- Box office
- $32.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 203 scenes and 906 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
