Count the Cliches in "Stranger than Fiction"

Saanen · Nov 12, 2006

I saw this movie today. Anyone else see it? It wasn't very good, and certainly wasn't very funny, but what drove me completely up the wall were the cliches--particularly the ones surrounding writing. In it, the writer is a chain-smoking neurotic who types her novel on a typewriter and who has had writer's block for ten years. Nevertheless, her publishers believe in her so much that they hire her an assistant to help her get past her writer's block. And don't even get me started about the "novel," which we hear in narration. It's horrible, horrible, horrible! 100% telling not showing, and not enough plot for a short short story, much less a novel.

Sorry, I just had to rant. Back to my own book, where I allow my characters to speak to one another.

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Nov 12, 2006

Maybe they're running out of vehicles for the guy (is it Will Ferrell? I forget!) to star in.

MajorDrums · Nov 12, 2006

i have not seen this movie, but the novelist was british, right? but, of course.

aghast · Nov 12, 2006

i adore the movie - totally relate to the neurosis of fiction writing, writers blokc and thinking your characters are real, plus i think will farrell was tremendous - one of his best performances to date - and emma thompson was great- its a nice litle fantasy flick

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 12, 2006

From the ads I gathered it was a cute and funny popcorn flick. Nothing more. Certainly not a deep intellectual drama. Not sure why you'd go into rant mode over something silly like that.

Celia Cyanide · Nov 12, 2006

I wanted to see it, only because a very frequent co-star of mine, Mike Cook, was in it.

http://imdb.com/name/nm1949610/

blackbird · Nov 12, 2006

They do really need to get over the cliche of writers and typewriters. I don't know any writer who composes that way anymore, unless they're a total eccentric. And to top it off, it's usually not even an electric typewriter, but one of the old manuals, at that. I suppose Hollywood clings to the image because it's more romantic than seeing someone sitting at a computer screen. Somehow, despite all the technology and progress of the past thirty years, people still tend to think of "real writers" as people sweating and banging away at an old manual-with, of course, the inevitable bottle of Scotch in easy reaching distance.

Bartholomew · Nov 12, 2006

blackbird said:
They do really need to get over the cliche of writers and typewriters. I don't know any writer who composes that way anymore, unless they're a total eccentric.

<Blush>

Sassenach · Nov 12, 2006

blackbird said:
They do really need to get over the cliche of writers and typewriters. I don't know any writer who composes that way anymore, unless they're a total eccentric.

Larry McMurtry does all his writing on a manual typewriter.

RG570 · Nov 12, 2006

Maybe it's just me, but I kind of got that these cliches were intentional.

Still sucked though. What a wooden performance. No chemistry whatsoever.

IrishScribbler · Nov 12, 2006

I think typewriters are slowly disappearing.

I've seen a couple of movies/shows in which laptops are featured as the tool for writers. One of the movies was with Ben Stiller, but I can't recall anything else about it at the moment. Duplex, maybe?

In another, the author hires a court stenographer to type his manuscript. (Titles escape me at 2 a.m.) She transcribes it using a computer.

Although sometimes a character calls for a typwriter. And in a movie like Stranger Than Fiction, in which it's being marketed as a light comedy, that "cliche" can be comedic in it's over-sentimentality.

So says I.

Saanen · Nov 13, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
From the ads I gathered it was a cute and funny popcorn flick. Nothing more. Certainly not a deep intellectual drama. Not sure why you'd go into rant mode over something silly like that.

Because while it was marketed as a cute and funny popcorn flick, it wasn't--it tried and failed to be a deep intellectual drama exploring the question, "Is art more important than the individual?" In the hands of better writers and directors the movie could have been fascinating. Instead it was dull, banal, and obvious. And absolutely 100% full of cliches.

Evaine · Nov 13, 2006

Even popcorn flicks are seen by millions of people, and re-enforce stereotypes.

Momento Mori · Nov 13, 2006

IrishScribbler:
In another, the author hires a court stenographer to type his manuscript. (Titles escape me at 2 a.m.) She transcribes it using a computer.

That would be Alex and Emma. Horrible movie. 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Stranger than Fiction isn't out in the UK yet, but I was quite looking forward to seeing it - great cast of actors and I thought the idea was intriguing. I suppose it'll do for a wet Sunday afternoon if I've got low expectations ...

Silverhand · Nov 13, 2006

I thought Stranger than Fiction was brilliant.

To each his own I guess.

Celia Cyanide · Nov 13, 2006

Evaine said:
Even popcorn flicks are seen by millions of people, and re-enforce stereotypes.

Stereotypes? I haven't seen the film, but isn't there a difference between stereotypes and cliches? And is it really that much of a problem to have people watch this movie and think that writers all use typewriters and smoke? Some actually do, so it's not incorrect to write one that does.

WerenCole · Nov 13, 2006

Can't we just be happy they are making a movie centered around a writer?

Also, as far as I have heard, this was not supposed to be a "funny" movie. More of a melo-drama is what I've heard.

Shadow_Ferret · Nov 13, 2006

Evaine said:
Even popcorn flicks are seen by millions of people, and re-enforce stereotypes.

Yes. And if people want to think writers still use typewriters, I guess I don't have a problem with that.

Some people might find that to be cliché, but I find the image quaint and inoffensive.

Personally, I have an old manual Remington sitting on a table. I've never used it, but I think it makes the room look like a writer's room.

Carmy · Nov 13, 2006

i have not seen this movie, but the novelist was british, right? but, of course

Hey, MajorDrums -- who's using clieches now.

Carmy · Nov 13, 2006

Oops, so upset I couldn't spell cliches.

UrsusMinor · Nov 13, 2006

Don't expect Hollywood to get over the typewriter any time soon. It's cinematically more exciting (Bang! Bang! Bang!) in several ways. (Check out "Throw Momma From the Train" which opens right on the typewritten page at high volume.)

Typewritten pages have permanence. This means when the author makes a mistake, he can rip the page from the machine, crumple it, and hurl it to the floor. Open a scene with someone sitting in front of a typewriter, surrounded by a floor-full of balled-up paper, and you need say nothing more. (Many of George Booth's New Yorker cartoons have exactly this setup.)

In addition, since it is the only copy (notice writers in movies never use carbons?), you can have dramatic or funny scenes where the pages blow away; this was done as recently as "Love Actually." The manuscript can be stolen. A critical page can be missing, or in the wrong order. Pages from one manuscript can get mixed in with another (or a revealing letter can accidentally end up in the manuscript). The politician or CEO can end up with pages of the wrong speech. (Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement" turns on a letter never meant to be sent getting mixed with another note.)

Screenwriters LOVE typewriters--for their characters. For their screenplays, at least here in LA, they all seem to use Final Draft.

I'm not sure I know anyone who even owns a typewriter these days...

Scribhneoir · Nov 13, 2006

WerenCole said:
Can't we just be happy they are making a movie centered around a writer?

It's actually centered on the writer's main character, not the writer.

I really liked the film. It's got some laugh-out-loud moments, and a lot of only-funny-to-writers moments. Anyone expecting an uproarious comedy will be disappointed, as it's more subtle than that and rather bittersweet, but overall I thought it was very enjoyable.

triceretops · Nov 13, 2006

Is is Harlan Ellison that refuses to use a computer? Doesn't he also condemn the internet?

Tri

Provrb1810meggy · Nov 13, 2006

I actually enjoyed the movie, despite the cliches and the fact that the "novel" the writer wrote was way boring. There were a few funny moments. I agree that it was subtle, not uproarious. Different for Will Ferrel.

underthecity · Nov 13, 2006

Yeah, Harlan Ellison, as he last reported, still uses a typewriter and declared that a computer is an "electronic planchette board."

It's difficult to argue with Ellison about anything, given that he's a writer's writer, one of the most prolific of our generation.

I believe that he and McMurty (and the character in Stranger than Fiction) are in the vast minority of authors who still use typewriters.

allen

Count the Cliches in "Stranger than Fiction"

Saanen

Ol' Fashioned Girl

Hand? What hand?

MajorDrums

Kidnapper

aghast

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Celia Cyanide

Joker Groupie

blackbird

Bartholomew

Comic guy

Sassenach

5 W's & an H

RG570

IrishScribbler

Saanen

Evaine

Momento Mori

Tired and Disillusioned

Silverhand

Celia Cyanide

Joker Groupie

WerenCole

Funny what? Do I amuse you?

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

Carmy

Carmy

UrsusMinor

Scribhneoir

Reinventing Myself

triceretops

Provrb1810meggy

underthecity

Finestkind