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apparently on a whim. Soon, the two of them set upon the task of trying to determine whether Harold's story is a comedy or a tragedy.

The fear of his imminent death spurs Harold Crick to live. He stops counting brushstrokes. More importantly, he begins to pursue his dream of learning to play the guitar. He also started to lead a life which allowed room for recreation and socialization.

Finally, Harold finds his tormentor on a rerun of an old television interview. He uses her IRS records to track her down.

Stranger than Fiction is decidedly a unique film. Everything the author writes happens in real life. This is not the first time this device has been used. But it is the first time it has been used in this particular way. Questions of morality inevitably surface. What right does the author have to exercise this sort of power over her character? What right does she have reawaken his life, only to take it away from him? What sort of responsibilities would an author have if they knew that everything they wrote would affect a real, living human being?

It appears to be Professor Hilbert's position that Karen's novel would suffer from her failure to kill Harold. I couldn't disagree more. Karen is stuck in a rut, just as much as Harold is. She kills off her main characters religiously, without even considering what would happen if she didn't kill them. She can't thrive as a human being until she learns to break her negative patterns of behavior.

It's impossible to determine the mechanism of how these bizarre events could actually happen. They inspire thoughts of telepathy and chaos theory. However, figuring out the how is not really the point. This story is about two people learning how to be truly alive. To do that, they have to take terrible risks.

I won't spoil the ending for you. I can only say that this is an interesting and exasperating film which I highly recommend.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Claerr.
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