Saw a fantastic movie last night. Best movie I've seen since I Heart Huckabees and easily entering the realm of my favorite all-time movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Stranger Than Fiction is in the same class of originality as those two movies. It's challenging. Not in the sense that it will change your life; rather in the sense of lottery numbers in Ohio matching the score from Saturday's game (no joke!). It's thought-provoking; it's humorous; it's a delightful movie. Much can be offered on the perspective of literature, character, philosophy and even religion in this movie - but you must see it first.
Two ideas, however, stand alone. First, the ever-present notion that life is a story. More than that, life is a narrative. You may not have a narrator that speaks with a British accent, but your life is most certainly a tale. It is being played out by characters you know and characters you do not. You have a limited narrative perspective. It's first-person perspective in the present; it's third-person perspective in hindsight (though not everyone makes the required effort to see life this way). And there is the startling idea that you are the main character in your story. Seems obvious enough, but it takes a bit of detached humor to appreciate the notion. And is your life a book you would read? Is it a masterpiece?
A final note on this notion, I have only recently come to see life as a narrative. In fact, it's a very post-modern viewpoint. It's one I haven't worked out and didn't give much credence to at first. I still can't explain it past the obvious -- but I am swimming in its sea of implication. And this movie was a refreshing dip in to what is a very new world-view.
Ebert sums it up best:
"Stranger Than Fiction" is a meditation on life, art and romance, and on the kinds of responsibility we have. Such an uncommonly intelligent film does not often get made. It could have pumped up its emotion to blockbuster level, but that would be false to the premise, which requires us to enter the lives of these specific quiet, sweet, worthy people. The ending is a compromise -- but it isn't the movie's compromise, it belongs entirely to the characters and is their decision. And that made me smile.
The second thing about the movie I liked was one of many memorable and challenging quotes: I wanted the change the world, so I decided to make cookies.
It's really that simple. It's really that child-like.
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3 comments:
can't wait to see it!
Saw it and totally enjoyed it!
Notice the total sensory usage! Colors, shapes, etc.
It is a challenging movie to grasp and saying that it mimics real life, which is a narrative, may be an overstatement. If this is such a post-modern perspective then it may be somewhat revisionist which is also a post-modern premise. The character re-writes his ending, or does he?
Yes -- there are a lot of questions and ideas present. Those who haven't seen it shouldn't read much further. I don't want to give anything away. It'd be better if those people saw the movie carte blanche.
One thing -- I don't think the movie mimics real life. I think it's a commentary on real life-- it's the extrapolation of an idea that is/should be present in real life. I'm not sure it fits the definition of revisionism and I don't think the character re-writes his own life, if only because his life wasn't written -- or typed out. With that perspective then we see the flaw in the creator which leads later to the ending -- a brilliant ending if only for that one line when she sums it up.
And as far as sensory images -- there weren't much. Very solid colors, solid shapes, solid block lettering -- no product placement. It was a very interesting choice by the director and very deliberate (I also recommend the another of the director, Forster's, pics: Stay)
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