Movie: Stranger than Fiction

年份 Year: 2006
類型 Genre: 劇情、喜劇 Comedy, Drama

Harold Crick wakes up finding out there is a voice in his head narrating his life.

The narration gives me this first impression of Harold Crick: a boring and lonely person. First we see the narration focuses on specific details such as the things he does repeatedly everyday. By precisely counting the number of his daily life items, we can also get a hint of his little habit may affected by his life. Also, highlighting his wristwatch in the beginning, I think this was to foreshadow how his watch will later play an important role in the story. In short, the narration tells us that Harold’s character is really odd and his life is simply monotonous.

I think in Harold’s case, plots move forward with the character, Harold, himself.

Although it seems like that what is pushing him to move on is Eiffel’s narration, which tells him that he is going to die. But what brings him out of the narrative is that he has his own conscious of living instead of being a character in the book, waiting for his fate. Harold was willing to change the plot by himself, and he actually did it by letting Eiffel know his existence. Lastly, Eiffel can’t kill a man who knows he is going to die but still tried hard to change his fate.

And isn’t that what we are doing, right now?

At first I thought when the professor talks about the characters in tragedies was because to other readers(outsiders) it doesn’t really matter if the protagonist was dead or not. But then I guess he is talking about the inevitable process of life, death. Death will come even if Harold is not the book character. What the professor is trying to say is that if you scheme through your life then you’ll see that people eventually die, it doesn’t matter when. So why not embrace the moment and face the knowing death?

The Little Things
Bavarian sugar cookies, they must be sweet and lovely to have a bite. I guess it can be a symbol of the sense of joyous and comfort, the salvation to pull people out of this hellish life. To me, Bavarian sugar cookies can be some littlest things, watching my favorite movie “You’ve Got Mail” over and over again, enjoying the beautiful music and scenes of New York city, or listening to indie records with my father’s CD player, though it always shut down without warning. And my favorite, covered up blankets to chat and giggle with my little sister in a dark quiet night, just like what we do when we were kids. These are the things that may work as Bavarian cookies for me.

I would say this is a fantasy in a reality world. A narrating voice is nearly possible to happen in reality life. Still I think it’s good to write this story in a fantasy form. The movie actually reminded me other two movies named “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Groundhog Day.” These three movies have one big point in common, that is they are all fantasies which are trying to convey the idea of embracing your life in your own way.

Using fantasy makes us jump out of the reality and combine with characters’ mind more easily. At the same time, it is more likely to convey the spirit of the film in fantasy world, for example, the protagonist had an unrealistic adventure or the concept of time in the story is twisted. Perhaps that is how fantasy works, the more fantastic, the more engaging, and the more we ponder on.