is Stranger than Fiction.

I just watched Stranger than Fiction tonight with my bffs. It had one of the most ingenious plots out of all the movies I've seen this year. I also was intrigued by the plot in Casino Royale, but I won't blog about it. It was just a good action film for once that wasn't entirely cheapened by typical Bond indiscretions. Well, maybe I should take that back. But it is the best Bond film so far, I believe (and I'll probably get screamed at for that). Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed Stranger than Fiction and even loved the message that it portrayed. I couldn't decide who had the bigger realization, Harold Crick or Kay Eiffel. Both realized something about the power they possess in this life. Harold believed that life was prescriptive. He reveled in safety and order, never stepping out of the bounds he set for himself. He didn't allow himself to dream and when he found himself experiencing something out of the ordinary, he believed that he was going crazy. I loved the awkward declaration of his interest in Ana Pascal- "I want you." The quiet realization of his life's dreams was wonderful as well as his selfless sacrifice that he believed would lead to his inevitable end. In contrast to Harold's innocence, Kay was so jaded about life that she imagined the best ending to every book she'd ever written was an untimely death. Her research led her to be insensitive to the suffering of others as she scoured the hospital for people who weren't just sick, but dying in order to provide her with inspiration for her latest book. Then in unlikely ways, both Kay and Harold realized that life is about reaching out to others and changing things that they were comfortable with: anonymity, order (in Harold's case), and hopelessness. I have already posted about this, but I will say it again, life exists to reach out to others. Without the connections that we make in this life, our existence is meaningless. Alone, we are nothing. It is not that relationships define us, but our willingness to participate in life makes everything worthwhile, even the hard parts. We love, lose, mourn, comfort, celebrate, encourage, and do countless other things with other people. They all require someone else to share the experience with. I am not preaching that everyone should find someone and settle down in order to find meaning in life, that is a painful and even harmful BYU solution. But we should not be afraid to break the boundaries of our lives. We set them and too often we allow them to control ourselves. I also realized that sometimes we need catalysts in our lives to cause these realizations, like Ana who forces Harold to eat his first homemade cookie, sometimes we don't know what we are missing out on and we need a friend to open our eyes, "Did you like the cookies?... Yes, thank you for forcing me to eat them." I love those who have taken the time to slowly pry my eyes open and are patient with me as I realize the possibilities that life holds.