Stranger Than Fiction is a movie
directed by Marc Forster. This is a
movie about a man named Harold Crick, played by Will Ferrell, whose world was
turned upside down when he finds out his life was being written. He is going about his everyday business when
he suddenly hears the voice of a narrator, played by Emma Thompson, telling his
life as a story while it is happening.
This movie is very
postmodern because the style and storyline were very different from what was
being done at the time. The way it was
introduced as a story about literature and what might really happen as someone
is writing a book. For example, what if
as an author is writing a book it is unexpectedly happening to a real person. That is exactly what takes place in this
movie and it was unknown to both the storywriter and her main character. Once Harold heard the narrator’s voice and tries
to get help, people think he’s crazy. It
wasn’t until he sought help from a university literature professor, played by
Dustin Hoffman, that they came to recognize the voice and identify her. It is at this point in the movie that the
viewer begins to think is this all real or being written and what if life may
be like this?
I think this is more of a story about stories
because the movie is a story and it’s about a story written. It just so happens that while the story
within the story is being written it is also being lived out through the main
character. He realizes that the all of
her writings end in tragedy and the hero/main character’s death. She worries that all of her books may have
tragically ended the life of a real person.
This causes her to think twice about the ending to this story. The viewer is lead to think about stories and
how’d they are played out.
The movie was very
cleverly portrayed. The way it jumped
back and forth between the narrator and the main character and how it brought
them together. It is very interesting to
think about if life really worked this way.
How would your story be written? What
twists and plots do they have in mind for you?
Would you try to change the ending of your story if you knew what was ahead
or is it better to just live life day to day and to live for the unexpected.
