History Film / StrangerThanFiction

** [[InvokedTropes Invoked with the novel itself, as it's stated in the film that Eiffel began writing the book just after she had been audited]]

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The suggestion throughout is that the book Karen was working on would ultimately become this film.
* [[OnlySaneEmployee Liz Lemon Job]]: Karen Eiffel's publisher hires a "personal assistant" to make sure she finishes her new novel.

The film also gives us the perspective of Karen Eiffel (played by Creator/EmmaThompson), 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.

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

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: More of an auditor's orgasm. Harold's number-obsessed view of the world shows up as hovering numbers and graphs that expand out of the objects he's analyzing.
* DeusExMachina: [[invoked]] In-universe. [[spoiler: The author decides that she can't kill off Harold Crick, seeing as how he was willing to sacrifice himself to save a child, on top of not wanting to kill someone who exists in real life. Hilbert points out it ruins the story and its theme with the deus ex machina and is very out of place with the rest of the novel, but Karen decides that is an acceptable tradeoff for letting Harold live.]]

* TheEveryman: Harold is depicted as the average man.

* InformedAbility: Karen's writing ability. We only see (and hear) snippets of it--both Harold and Hilbert think the full manuscript is a brilliant masterpiece, but we only see quick snatches as they read through it.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ms. Pascal is one of the things that gives Harold something to live for. Also, being GenreSavvy, Hilbert asks if he has recently met anyone whose shaken up his life.
* MorningRoutine: How the movie starts is Harold's routine, and Eiffel narrating it.

* {{Narrator}} Karen Eiffel narrates Harold's life, but she's also a character herself in his life. Both of them are initially unaware of this fact.

* PostModernism: The narrator doesn't know they are the narrator.

* LizLemonJob: Karen Eiffel's publisher hires a "personal assistant" to make sure she finishes her new novel.

* CruelTwistEnding: Eiffel's signature is a sudden death for the protagonist just as their life was improving.

-->'''Jules''': Have you met any girl you might have might shaken your world view?

* ABoyAndHisX: The opening narration mentions "This is a story about a man named Harold Crick. {{Beat}} And his wristwatch."

%%* GranolaGirl: Ana Pascal, our resident baker.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ms. Pascal is one of the things that gives Harold something to live for. Also, being genre savy, Hilbert asks if he has recently met anyone whose shaken up his life.

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 (played by Dustin Hoffman). 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 (played by Emma Thompson), 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.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Invoked by Karen, who believes this and that's why she writes all her novels to end with the protagonist's tragic death just before they accomplish something great.

--> '''Hilbert:''' 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. [[DramaticIrony "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?]]

* {{Adorkable}}: It's implied that Ana finally starts falling for Harold due to this trope, and it's pretty easy to see why.

* ImportantHaircut: One of the first things Karen remarks on upon seeing Harold for the first time.

* LemonyNarrator: In-universe example with Karen Eiffel's narration. Notable that she's not a man (though she is British), unlike most examples of this trope.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The suggestion throughout that the book Karen was working on would ultimately become this film.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Ms. Pascal is one of the things that gives Harold something to live for.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Happens to Karen Eiffel twice. The first time, it's when she's learned that Harold is real, that what she's written actually happens to him, and that [[spoiler: she may have killed real people with her previous novels]]. The second, combined with a HeroicBSOD, is after [[spoiler: she's just typed out the sentence that kills Harold]].

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Invoked by Karen, who believes this and why all of her novels have the protagonist being offed.

* DeusExMachina: [[invoked]] In-universe. [[spoiler: The author decides that she can't kill off Harold Crick, seeing as how he was willing to sacrifice himself to save a child, on top of not wanting to kill someone who exists in real life. Hilbert points out it ruins the story and its theme with the deus ex machina and is very out of place with the rest of the novel, but Karen figures she'll rewrite it a bit better.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Karen Eiffel is very unusual in the way she acts around others, sometimes coming off as aggressive and distant. She also takes time imagining deaths, usually imagining herself being the one who dies, and at one point asks a nurse at a hospital "where are the dying people" because she wanted a visual to help imagine Harold's death.

* RealityWritingBook: Presumably, any book Eiffel writes a story in could affect reality. It's definitely happening to Harold, and Eiffel is shaken that it could have happened to her previous characters

** 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 the fact that Harold is better at math than Karen casts some early doubt on the whole "fictional character vs. real author" relationship. Consider as well that he gave his answer before Karen's narration.

** [[spoiler: 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]].

* TheWindyCity: Although the story quite clearly takes place in Chicago (a man is seen reading the Tribune on the bus, the Dearborn Street subway station sign is seen, as is "Illinois Lottery" at the bodega where Karen buys the apple) there is strangely no specific mention of such, even though the buses that go throughout the movie are obviously CTA buses with the logos hidden.

* NoFourthWall: Only between the author and her protagonist, though. The fourth wall of the movie is very much intact.

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* ChekhovsGun: The watch. Repeatedly pointed out as such -- in fact, treated by the narrator like an entirely separate character.

** 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. We only see (and hear) snippets of it - both Harold and Hilbert think the full manuscript is a brilliant masterpiece, but we only see quick snatches as they read through it.

* JerkassHasAPoint: As incredibly brusque and seemingly uncaring Hilbert is about the inevitable death of Harold, people DO have their lives changed for the better from literary works - [[spoiler:and he knew about Harold saving the child in the end, too.]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: According to Professor Hilbert, all of Karen Eiffel's previous novels have ended with the protagonist dying just short of accomplishing something, and the rough draft of Harold Crick's story is no different. [[spoiler:It later becomes part of the reason as to why Karen rewrites the ending - she tells Hilbert the dramatic irony and poignancy of Harold's death would have been nullified by someone who willingly went to die for a noble cause.]]

* TakeOurWordForIt: The brilliance of Eiffel's original ending. It's hard to tell from watching the film where the poetry was in [[spoiler:Harold dying from a confluence of three different storylines -- his own, the boy on the bike's, and that of the bus driver]].

* WhatIsOneMansLifeInComparison: 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]].