History Film / StrangerThanFiction

* AGoodWayToDie: [[spoiler:After reading through the draft of Eiffel's novel about him, Harold realizes that his death is required to truly make the novel a literary masterpiece. He then accepts his impending death as this trope.]]

** Not ''nearly'' as much as the end credit sequence, especially after watching the special features about the the design company.

* AGoodWayToDie: [[spoiler:After reading through the draft of Eiffel's novel about him, Harold realizes that his death is required to truly make the novel a literary masterpiece. He then accepts his impending death as this trope.]]

* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler:One of the first things Karen remarks on upon seeing Harold for the first time]].
* [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice: When Harold Crick reads the ending Karen Eiffel finally decided on: that he is [[TakingTheBullet killed by a bus after pushing a child out of the way]]: he decides that it's a sacrifice worth making, and goes through with it with full knowledge of the consequences]].

* PlayingAgainstType: Will Ferrell in probably his first non-comedic role. And he does a damn good job of it.

* [[spoiler: [[WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison What Is One Man's Life In Comparison?]]]]: The idea is batted about that maybe [[spoiler: the possible contribution to world literature and the greater meaning of his planned death mean that Harold should accept his death as it was written. Hilbert's speech about the original ending comes off as pretty damn cold concerning his implied utter disregard for Harold's life]].

Mundane IRS auditor Harold Crick (played by WillFerrell) was minding his own business, living his daily routine, when one day, he begins to hear a voice... the voice of an author. Her voice follows him everywhere, narrating his daily activities, much to his annoyance. After all, there's not much to narrate. Beyond going to work, brushing his teeth, and eating meals alone, nothing at all happens worth narrating. Until he hears one line that changes everything. "Little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death."

* GenreSavvy[=/=]WrongGenreSavvy: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. The professor is GenreSavvy because he studies literature, but they can't take advantage of it because they don't know what kind of story Harold Crick is in.
** Once the professor actually believes Harold is being narrated (due to the "little did he know" line below), he instantly starts displaying his GenreSavvy.

-->'''Professor Hilbert:''' Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.\\

'''Professor Hilbert:''' Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and, of course, the quality of the pancakes]].

* ShootTheShaggyDog: According to the professor, all of Karen Eiffel's previous novels have ended this way, and the rough draft of Harold Crick's story is no different.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Professor Hilbert's copious coffee consumption.

'''Professor Hilbert:''' Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

* TheHeroDies: The fate Harold is trying to avoid. Turns out that Karen is famous for doing this in every book she writes.

That one narration is enough to thrust Harold into action, eager to do anything it takes to avoid his death. Though told he's schizophrenic by the psychologist he sees, Harold refuses to believe such a diagnosis. Instead, he seeks out the foremost professor in literature, Dr. Jules Hilbert. Hilbert quizzes him extensively on the narrator, then sets Harold to figuring out whether he's in a comedy or tragedy. After all, in a comedy he'll get hitched, but in a tragedy he'll die.

The film also gives us the perspective of Karen Eiffel, an author currently suffering from severe writer's block. Apparently she's been working on this novel for quite some time, but is at a complete loss at how to kill off her protagonist... one Mr. Harold Crick.

The film is notable for its all-star cast and for placing Will Ferrell in an uncharacteristically dramatic role... and with good results!

* AddictionDisplacement: at the end, Karen Eiffel's assistant Penny gets her the patch to replace her cigarettes, but it's left unclear whether Karen will give up her addiction or not.

* BlackComedy: Slightly. Professor Hilber's casual mention of Harold's death and Harold's own mounting hysteria over the subject is, frankly, a bit funny to watch.
** Related to below, Karen's BreakTheHaughty scene and her imagining potential deaths for Harold are also funny.
* BreakTheHaughty: This happens to Karen Eiffel, successful and assured in her own abilities [[spoiler: until she realizes everything she's been writing is true, and she may have killed actual people with her last books]]

* ChekhovsGun: The watch. Repeatedly pointed out as such.
* ChekhovsGunman: You know that kid with the bike and the job-hunting woman that show up unexplained in the beginning of the movie? Unsurprisingly, they're important.
** In fact, their multiple appearance suggest that Eiffel is trying to figure out how to make them fit this trope.
*** They may even be the other protagonists, central to the book but not to the movie.

-->'''Penny:''' "And I suppose you smoked all these cigarettes?"
-->'''Karen:''' "No. They came pre-smoked."

-->'''Penny:''' "Yeah, they said you were funny."

* FourthWallObserver: A variation: Harold can hear the narrator, but [[spoiler:turns out the Fourth Wall isn't technically up in the first place]]

* FridgeHorror: Invoked. So [[PostModernism Po Mo]] that this even happens InUniverse: Karen Eiffel was a well known author whose SignatureStyle was the [[ShootTheShaggyDog tragic death of each of her protagonists]]. Harold Crick was the only one who figured it out (or the only one who had the means to contact her), [[spoiler:and she prevented his death from happening]]. So how many people did Karen kill inadvertently before she realized she might be controlling real people? When Karen realizes this possibility, it [[HeroicBSOD hits her like a freight train.]]
** It should be noted that this is not an uncommon worry for writers, of contemporary fiction or otherwise, to have lurking somewhere in the back of their mind. If you've ever wondered why so many authors seem to have a love affair with [[AerithAndBob impossible or incongruous names]], part of the reason is to dodge this particular bullet since the probability of an actual person having that name, and thus being affected, is ridiculously low.
* GenreSavvy, WrongGenreSavvy: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. The professor is GenreSavvy because he studies literature, but they can't take advantage of it because they don't know what kind of story Harold Crick is in.

* HeroicBSOD: Karen has one when she assumes that because Harold is real that her other characters were as well, leading her to believe that she killed multiple people
* IceCreamKoan: "A tree doesn't... ''think'' it's a tree? It is a tree!"
** "Of course trees were trees. Harold knew trees were trees."
* ImportantHaircut
* [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice: When Harold Crick reads the ending Karen Eiffel finally decided on: that he is [[TakingTheBullet killed by a bus after pushing a child out of the way]]: he decides that it's a sacrifice worth making, and goes through with it with full knowledge of the consequences.]]
** In addition, both the novel and the film itself treat [[spoiler:Harold's watch as its own character. When the bus slams into Harold, the first thing it hits is his watch:-which is destroyed, but a part of it becomes embedded permanently in his arm and slows down the hemorrhage that would have killed him otherwise. So just like Harold [[TakingTheBullet stepped in front of a bus to save a child]], his watch took the brunt of the hit for him]].
* InformedAbility - Karen's writing ability. The movie is interesting, but the novel is not that interesting. Certainly not enough to warrant [[spoiler: putting a child in danger so a guy can die so the ending will be interesting.]]
** Then again, considering we only get the main character's perspective in a story that obviously more factors going into it than just him, odds are the story is much more interesting as a regular linear narrative.
** Professor Hilbert even comments on it, saying that the finished book is only "okay."
*** The ''revised ending'' is "okay". The manuscript with the original ending is a masterpiece.

-->''I've written papers on "Little did he know." I've taught classes on "Little did he know." I once gave an entire seminar based upon "Little did he know." Sonofabitch, Harold. "little did he know" means there's something he did not know. [[MindScrew That means there's something you don't know]]. [[CrowningMomentofFunny Did you know that?]]''

-->'''Professor Hilbert:''' Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.
-->'''Harold:''' What is wrong with you? Hey, I don't want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?
-->'''Professor Hilbert:''' Harold, if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

* NoAntagonist: Harold is simply dealing with the narration of his life and the fact that he's going to die soon. Karen is just working through writer's block, and has no idea that she's affecting Harold's life. [[spoiler:Even when they meet, their relationship isn't antagonistic; Karen has massive doubts over killing Harold, but can't think of another way to end the story.]]
* NoFourthWall
* OhAndXDies: Early in the novel (and film), it's made clear that Harold is going to die at the end, and this is what kicks off his quest. [[spoiler: He doesn't, however.]]
* PaintingTheMedium: For us. The narrator in any other movie would be the normal narrator, but here the main character reacts to a voice, as you do when someone describes your life in detail.

* PlayingAgainstType: Will Ferrell. And a damn good job of it.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens / RageAgainstTheAuthor. "No, I'm raging against YOU, you stupid Voice! Leave me alone!"

* RooflessRenovation

* TakeThat: in universe. The reason Harold is able to find Karen Eiffel is because she had been audited ten years prior, which is also around the time she started writing a book about an IRS agent who would inevitably die.
* TakeOurWordForIt: The brilliance of Eiffel's original ending.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Played with; A therapist is one of the first people Harold visits, and though his problem is outside her field (she just thinks it's schizophrenia), she does help point him to Dr. Hilbert.

* [[spoiler: [[WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison What Is One Man's Life In Comparison?]]]]: The idea is batted about that maybe [[spoiler: the possible contribution to world literature and the greater meaning of his planned death mean that Harold should accept his death as it was written]].

** In the context of the book Karen is writing about Harold, it's a straight example of WritersCannotDoMath. In the larger frame of the movie, though, the fact that Harold is better at math than Karen casts some early doubt on the whole "fictional character vs. real author" relationship

* GenreSavvy, WrongGenreSavvy: ([[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. The professor is GenreSavvy because he studies literature, but they can't take advantage of it because they don't know what kind of story Harold Crick is in.)

** It's a typo in a movie about a novel. The movie is filled with mathematical references and in-jokes. When a writer names every character after a famous mathematician, they can probably do basic multiplication.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: The movie was portrayed as typical Will Ferrel comedy in advertisements, which it is decidedly not.

The whole movie is posted [[http://www.crackle.com/c/Stranger_Than_Fiction/Stranger_Than_Fiction/2482887 here]], though [[NoExportForYou it may not be available in certain parts of the world]].

* {{Adorkable}}: Not at first but when he's quietly playing guitar when he thinks his date isn't watching, she clearly thinks he's this trope.

* YouCantFightFate: Unless you're writing that fate.

* YouCantFightFate: Unless you're writing that fate.
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