The King of Bloke and Bird

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jason forbid me to go see Stranger Than Fiction without him. He knows I am doing NaNoWriMo, and was willing to wait into December, but I could not hold out that long, the movie sounded just too great - and like the perfect NaNoWriMo movie, actually: a man starts hearing a voice narrating his life, and eventually figures out that he is a character in a novelist's new book. And she is about to kill him.

Sounds absurd, doesn't it? And yet, all the characters were entirely believable. I think this may well have been the best movie I've seen all year. I loved it right from the opening credits, with the overlaid diagrams. The visuals were great - for example, almost all the architecture throughout the film was very angular and straight and sparse and unforgiving. The characters were GREAT, and the plot moved forward relentlessly, and I was anxious to find out how it would be resolved - and the ending of the movie mimicks, of course, the ending of the book.

But what has stuck with me overnight is one scene with one gesture. (I am not surprised. It's usually something smallish that makes the largest impression on me.)

Will Ferrell's character, Harold Crick, makes a gesture so sweet and romantic that I find myself reminded of John Cusack with a boombox over his head. No, I won't tell you what it was, because that would spoil one of the finest moments in the film for you. Let me just say that it took me about four seconds to comprehend. When I got it, I laughed, because I was so delighted by it.

If you like Will Ferrell, go see this movie.
If you like Emma Thompson, go see this movie.
If you like Dustin Hoffman, go see this movie.
If you like Maggie Gyllenhaal, go see this movie.
If you like Queen Latifah, go see this movie.
If you are a writer, go see this movie.
If you are a reader, go see this movie.

Oh, what am I saying - just go see this movie! (And check out the movie's web site - I'm going back there tonight, to replay a couple of scenes, get a podcast, and play a game there.)

Comments

[Keith]

I'm also doing NaNo again this year and might actually make the count for the first time. Our local NaNo group all got together after a Saturday write-in meeting and saw the movie together. I liked it very much, in spite of the fact that I am NOT a Will Ferrell fan. At all. (except maybe that one other movie where he plays the character guarding the writer. I can't remember what it's called at the moment.)

But he reins it in perfectly for Stranger Than Fiction.

[munichmaedchen]

oh den schau ich mir auch an am Wochenende. Danke fuer den Tip!

[munichmaedchen]

I love the movie. Saw it today after I finished my novel at the OVC. The funny thing is, I also felt sorry with my characters and reacted almost the same way this writer reacted. And little did he know...

[Ron]

What is the song that plays at the end of Stranger Than Fiction (during the credits) and where do I find it?

[Elkit]

Umh .... not sure. It's been a while since I saw it. But my tip for you: check the Internet Movie Database. They have soundtrack listings quite often, and they do for Stranger than Fiction. If they list it in order, the over-the-credits song would have been "That's Entertainment" by The Jam.