For one of the first times in a long, long time, I sat down on my couch, turned off the room lights, and watched a movie from beginning to end. Something about “the anxiety of impendingness” makes this kind of settling very difficult for me.
I had been wanting to see Stranger Than Fiction for a long while, but the reviews I had read and heard via word of mouth were only so-so. Shannon loaned it to me and said that it was “cute” and “not too heavy.” For me, this was so much more. I don’t know why, but it really spoke to me. I thought it was a beautiful story, the kind of magical realism I really love; plus, perfectly cast with a minute focus to detail that I found so lovely, in a sort of Amelie kind of way. The OCD/mathiness of the main character’s world is depicted in golden sections and formulas popping up whenever he brushed his teeth or took a step. As his fairly cardboard character becomes more human, these numerical graphics dropped out, paralleling his emotional metamorphosis. So many wonderful things I could talk about: the change in Emma Thompson’s character when she meets her main character face to face is so powerful; the scenes in the bakery; on the bus; at the university… So many wonderful things. I knew right away that the music was Britt Daniel from Spoon (a band I love and intend/expect to love even more). Perhaps this quirk was specifically the right quirk to interface with what I needed this night, at this time in my life.
Thanks, Shannon, for the loaner. And also thanks for the soft foods you brought over for my ouchy post-root canal jaw. Lately, you and Brian just win!
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