Stranger than Fiction

[Cross-posted from over here - it was just so great, I've got to note it here too.]

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Jason forbid me to go see "Stranger Than Fiction" without him. He knows I am doing NaNoWriMo, and was willing to wait into December, but I could not hold out that long, the movie sounded just too great - and like the perfect NaNoWriMo movie, actually: a man starts hearing a voice narrating his life, and eventually figures out that he is a character in a novelist's new book. And she is about to kill him.

Sounds absurd, doesn't it? And yet, all the characters were entirely believable. I think this may well have been the best movie I've seen all year. I loved it right from the opening credits, with the overlaid diagrams. The visuals were great - for example, almost all the architecture throughout the film was very angular and straight and sparse and unforgiving. The characters were GREAT, and the plot moved forward relentlessly, and I was anxious to find out how it would be resolved - and the ending of the movie mimicks, of course, the ending of the book.

But what has stuck with me overnight is one scene with one gesture. (I am not surprised. It's usually something smallish that makes the largest impression on me.)

Will Ferrell's character, Harold Crick, makes a gesture so sweet and romantic that I find myself reminded of John Cusack with a boombox over his head. No, I won't tell you what it was, because that would spoil one of the finest moments in the film for you. Let me just say that it took me about four seconds to comprehend. When I got it, I laughed, because I was so delighted by it.

If you like Will Ferrell, go see this movie.
If you like Emma Thompson, go see this movie.
If you like Dustin Hoffman, go see this movie.
If you like Maggie Gyllenhaal, go see this movie.
If you like Queen Latifah, go see this movie.
If you are a writer, go see this movie.
If you are a reader, go see this movie.

Oh, what am I saying - just go see this movie! (And check out the movie's web site - I'm going back there tonight, to replay a couple of scenes, get a podcast, and play a game there.)