A Review of Stranger Than Fiction

One of my favorite modern films this year, Stranger than Fiction, is a self-aware comedy that addresses what I believe are very important issues in scriptwriting. When Harold -an uptight, stair-counting auditor for the IRS - meets a life-loving modern revolutionary-of-sorts, a stark contrast between the hard, cold, rigid, and dehumanizing state of business and the loving world of caring, friendship, and community is created. This issue of our modern western culture dehumanizing our lives is just one of many raised by this film.

Another (perhaps less subtle) issue raised is that of the US citizen's lack of say in how their taxes are spent. Harold's "auditee" explains herself by telling Harold she paid for the taxes that are used for building roads and helping the community. It was the taxes spent on corporate bailouts, unjust/unnecessary war, and campaign back-paying/subsidizing that she didn't pay. Later, Harold explains to her a way she can write off the free food she gives away to compensate for the taxes she "withheld" in order to avoid breaking the law. She explains that the "point" is to break the law.

Stranger than Fiction also address the moral issue of authors killing their characters, and violence in general as is it portrayed in modern media. The films seems to express the belief that even the overall quality of a film is not more important than it's contents. In other words, the ends don't justify the means. This belief, thankfully, saved Harold.