Killing Harold Crick

My list of the top ten greatest movies ever got a little shuffled around last night when I saw Stranger Than Fiction, the new movie starring Will Farrell, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, Dustin Hoffman, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (You absolutely must go to the official site, linked above, and check it out.)

It was so freakin' good.

The gist of it is that Karen Eiffel, played by Emma Thompson (who is magnificent and never moreso than in this film) is a somewhat neurotic novelist with writer's block. She can't figure out how to kill Harold Crick.

Harold, played by Will Farrell, is the main character in her new novel. Harold is also a real person who wakes up one day with Karen's voice narrating his life, "accurately and with a better vocabulary," in his head. But suddenly the mysterious narrator reveals that Harold's death is imminent.

Somehow this film managed to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole way through, wondering how it would end. When they finally had me convinced that only one ending was possible, I didn't want that ending to happen at all. And then they convinced me that it was okay for it to end that way. And then it didn't end that way at all. But the ending was perfect. Amazing.

If you're a reader or a writer, you must see this film immediately. There are literary jokes in it that will leave you laughing while the rest of the theater cocks their heads at the screen, puzzled. This will be okay whether you are a wordie or not. I went with three friends. We are all at varying levels of word-addictedness, and we all thought the film was fabulous.

I'm not a huge Will Farrell fan. In fact, this is his first movie that I've liked. Who'da (which I'm tempted to spell "Huda," for you Unionites out there) thunk that Will Farrell could create a movie so relevant to the human condition in America today? Because it is incredibly relevant. It makes you think about your priorities and about living your life instead of just letting it live you. It's one that makes you feel just a little bit like it could change your whole life. I love books and movies like that--the ones that make you feel for an instant just a little bit more alive. Good writing makes me feel this way most often, but last night, a good movie made me feel that way.

Go see how Karen Eiffel kills Harold Crick. It's totally worth six bucks. Maybe it'll even leave you with a little deeper understanding of how to live.