Don't be a "Stranger", See this movie NOW!!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2006)

The film follows Harold Crick, a dour Chicago auditor for the Internal Revenue Service who lives alone, eats alone, counts the number of steps he walks for fun, focuses on ways to save time tying his tie and brushes his teeth exactly 72 times (36 up and down, 36 back and forth) and suddenly finds himself the subject of wry narration only he can hear, a narration which begins to affect his entire life. Harold instantly attempts to search for the body of the voice with no success. He realizes the voice does not know that he can hear it and that this voice plans to kill him.
Harold visits a psychologist who misdiagnosis the voice as schizophrenia. Harold, desperate for another answer, asks the psychologist to imagine if it really was a voice who was going to kill him, what would she do? The psychologist recommends a literary expert. Harold then goes to Professor Jules Hilbert to find out who the author of his life is and to stop her from killing him. They eventually narrow it down to several authors and the professor tells Harold to find out if the "book" (his life) is a comedy or a tragedy. All the while, Harold develops a love interest in a woman he is auditing, Ana. Ana first rejects him, prompting him to believe the "book" is a tragedy, but slowly she shows a liking for him.
Back at Hilbert's, as they are trying to decode the author, the TV switches to show an author speaking, Harold realizes the author of his life is a woman named Karen Eiffel. Hilbert tells him she is known for bringing about the demises of her main characters. Harold then begins a frantic search to find her to stop his death. He eventually tracks her down by finding her phone number through IRS reports and meets with her. He tells her that he found her through Hilbert, and that he is her character. She is then stunned to find that what ever she writes happens to Harold Crick. She gives him the manuscript of the story and tells him he deserves to know. Harold, before he reads it, gives it to Hilbert to read first. Harold then goes home and lives his life as he would want (buying a guitar, no longer wearing neck ties, spending time with someone else, in this case Ana). When Harold receives the manuscript back from Hilbert the next day, Hilbert tells him it's a masterpiece and cannot be changed. Harold then gets on a city bus and spends all day there reading the manuscript front to back. When he's done, he gets off and bumps into Karen again. Harold tells her that it is a masterpiece and he will die this meaningful death. Harold then spends his last night with Ana and then wakes up ready to face his destiny.
Karen calmly narrates his life: his waking up, his getting ready, and eventually heading to the bus stop. At the bus stop, Harold and a group of about a dozen others are waiting for the city bus when a little boy on his bike comes riding along. Attempting to cross the street, he falls off directly in the path of the oncoming bus. Harold leaps forward, pushing him out of the way, but gets struck and killed by the bus.
Back in her office, Karen ponders how many people she's killed, how many lives she ruined and decides that she has to go back and save Harold. Feeling guilty, she decides to rewrite the ending so that Harold lives.