I went to see Stranger Than Fiction this past weekend expecting to see a comedy that would make me laugh, but then I thought it would quickly fade into the blurry part of my mind where such movies usually go to die—never to be recalled, referenced, or viewed again. I was wrong.
Oh, I laughed as Harold Crick heard voices—especially in the beginning of the movie when he had no idea who the voice was (it’s a narrator who is telling his life story, although the narrator—who is an author—has no idea that her protagonist is a real person). But then the movie got more serious. The narrator/author plans to kill off Harold in her novel—just as she’s done with all her protagonists in previous books—but she can’t figure out to kill Harold because she has writer’s block.
I won’t get into the entire plot because I don’t want to spoil it for you if you are planning to see the movie, but I was moved by the ending. Not because it was brilliant or original. I have no idea if it falls into either category—mostly because I’m so close to the message: little things matter, and they enrich life as long as a person recognizes and appreciates them.
Of course, big things matter too…and they are covered quite well in this movie. But once the big decisions are made, the small things fill in the gaps and become our life. These small things aren’t like “filler” songs though that bridge the gap on CDs between hit songs. And the person or people who wrote this script so understands that.
At the end of the movie, the narrator pointed to a string of small things (referred to as “nuances”) that added meaning to people’s lives and some of those things would seem inconsequential if mentioned without any context. But of course, everything and every moment has context and that’s one of the things that makes life so marvelous.
