Stranger Than Fiction

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.