Movie Review: Stranger than Fiction

I remember when my mom used to bake at home. The warm smell of fresh bread.

Yeah, particularly this time of year during the Christmas holiday when it would be banana, carrot, fruit, and rum cake.

For that matter, myself I'm more into baking stuff rather than cooking. As a kid I would make my own pancakes topped with Caro syrup, or perhaps make some puto.

The cooking part I got from my dad. It would usually be a dash of everything available that in my own way would contribute to the flavor.

The designing and presentation, I would say is attributed to Wok with Yan. Some mornings I would wake up, grab some hotdogs, fry a few eggs, shape some veggies, then wake my parents with a presented breakfast in bed. Sweet, some day I hope my own kids would do that, too.

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I seem to appreciate Will Ferrell over Adam Sandler these days. Perhaps its the style of comedy, not too slapstick. Don't get me wrong, see my review of Click. However will comes across with gem over gem these days. Regardless of the other reviews for this movie, I think its actually sweet.

The story is about an IRS agent, Harold Crick, and his watch.

One day a fiction writer who usually kills her characters in the plot starts to write. Harold startlingly hears her narration of his life and actions. At first it bothered him no end, but in hind sight whatever she wrote did lend him some insights on his attitude of life's routines. Wake up, brush teeth, chase the bus, coffee breaks, home, and sleep at the same time each day -- all about saving time. But shave time and skip experiences for what?

During one distracted visit to a baker, the narrative voice intones that he really fancied the baker. At the time perhaps it wasn't what was on his mind, but see where positive suggestion leads to. He falls for the rebellious baker who is half-in and half-out of liking him.

At some point the writer decides to make a threshold chapter, her character's death. Hearing this leads to Harold's search of finding ways to make her narration stop to stem his death.

Eventually, he finds the identity of the author and it does help that he worked at the IRS where he used tracking information to locate her and call her. This knocks her off her feet for sure. Imagine, writing a character's death which happens in real life.

She finishes the script but doesn't type it in until .... reviews it to find a way out. He reads the script at one point and realizes that there is just no way to avoid death and not derail the narrator's master piece work. Accepting his fate, he tells the author to finish typing and walks away.

Thats the saving grace of this character. The willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. Thus he lives, thanks to his wrist watch at the culmination of the modified plot!

As the author said, (paraphrased) "The man knows how he's going to die and yet goes on ahead and allows me to finish my work. Isn't that a man worth saving (from death)?"

Perhaps I saw these words at some point "No greater love is there than this, than for man to give up his life for the sake of others." That was written on an evangelical book long time ago in my parent's bathroom. At one point they thought I'd become some kind of priest, in fact. But again, thats another story for another day, and another batch of beers. :-)