Stranger Than Fiction - one of the best movies of 2006

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2006)

If I were asked to guess who wrote the screenplay of this movie, I would definitely say "Charlie Kaufman" because this is exactly the kind of story that could come from the mind of Charlie Kaufman (except in this case, we owe our thanks to Zach Helm). In this stranger-than-fiction tale, our hero, Harold Crick is an IRS agent who lives his life by calculating every step, carefully planing his day, his schedule instead of enjoying the moment. One day something goes wrong with his wrist watch while he is asleep and then he starts to hear his life being narrated by a female voice. It is funny that just as the narrator is introducing us to the character of Harold Crick, the very same character (who is supposed to be merely fictional) also hears the same narration. Soon, the voice becomes quite intrusive and makes him lose his train of thought. Harold goes to a doctor seeking advice about this weird situation. Of course, the first thing that comes to doctor's mind is that Harold is going insane or probably schizophrenic. Considering this may not be the case, Harold ends up seeking help from a literature professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) who tries to understand what kind of story Harold is in (comedy or tragedy?). In the meantime, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) the voice inside Harold Crick's mind, is actually a real-life author and writing a story about her character...well...Harold Crick. But the bad news is that, at the end of every story, Kay kills her main character - something that puts Harold on the edge. Harold, who is not very good at socializing with others and who is a very lonely man, starts to open up a little and connects with the woman he desires, a young woman named Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal). But, if the story's ending doesn't change Harold's life will cease to exist. This is a very good movie with an inspirational message about the meaning of life. If we think about it, the author Kay is more like a God figure because she decides who lives and who dies. We can think of ourselves as characters in a book written by God. And if knew the exact time of our death, how would we continue to live our life or could we continue at all? The movie's message is strong and inspirational: live your life without calculating every step, be more spontaneous, stop being so result-focused and indulge yourself in the little details of life, enjoy the moment. After all, these are the things that makes life so precious. This message comes way before the ending but the ending puts a cherry on top of this message. I highly recommend Stranger Than Fiction to anyone who is interested in the meaning of life. I give it a 8 out of 10.