Stranger than Fiction

Marc Foster and Zach Helm are good storytellers. It is not easy to pull off a postmodern feel good movie like “Stranger Than Fiction.” They have good help for sure--the actors are excellent across the board—but it is the cleverness of the script and the fine control of the directing that make it work. The conceit of the film is so surreal that it is almost in itself a cheap gag. Zach Helm fortunately decided not to go that way. Instead of writing a 90 minutes SNL skit, he set out to win us over to the side of our comic hero. We see him doing things we do everyday—brushing our teeth and walking to the bus stop. Although he is doing it with a sad obsessiveness—counting every stroke and every step— that we hope we do not do ourselves. This creates a sense of affinity for our taxman in the audience. So, when the conceit is revealed, we are willing and happy to go along with it. We are thus lead into the story rather than the gimmicks and the movie is half way to success. Foster’s direction too continues on this focus on storytelling. A lot of visual gimmicks are used—the taglines on things Harold is counting, for example—and all are treated with a restrained matter-of-factness. There are some many things in the film that would tempt a lesser director into all kinds of indulgence but Foster uses them simple as part of the set, part of the story and thus locates them in the narrative as supports that they are. This shows not only restrain but also a high level of trust in the abilities of his audiences. He does not have to make a big point of the coldness and sparseness of Eiffel’s apartment, he trust his audience to see the relationship between the rooms and its owner’s psyche, they are the texture and depth of the story. Without the distraction and the textured narrative, we, the audience, are allowed to share, even participate, in the story and are captivated by it. In the end I am moved by its fable charm. Unfortunately, it would have been so much better if Harold died, that would have made for not only a better novel but also a better film. Reasons are given, of course, for the change, but the movie does not convince us of the necessity. And so, like the novel in the movie, it is a very good enough movie but not a great one.