Better than Fiction?

My wife and I went to see Stranger than Fiction at the local $1.50 (that means, second run) theater the other night and were happily surprised. Not only was the movie well-made, subtly hilarious, and mentally engaging, it was thematically mighty as well. I suspect that most people went because Will Ferrell stars in it, but I doubt that many left thinking about his comedic performance.

No, what was most striking in the end of a sometimes-confusing movie was the evident desire it left its audience to live well. Surprisingly for the film's ho-hum, nobody-loves-me lead character Harold Crick, the film itself actually pictures him, in its finale, as a Christ figure. Yes, that's right, a Christ figure.

Go see it for yourself. See how Harold Crick knowingly and willingly approaches his own death. See how he has "read the script" for it (note the Biblical implications) and still goes straight to it. See how he thinks and ponders and cries over it but never complains. See how he sacrifices his own life for the life of another - one who is weaker and smaller and more foolish than he. Listen to how his narrator says that his kind of hero - the kind who sacrifices for others, even in death - is the kind you want to live. See how he is "resurrected." And see what kind of implications his sacrificial love has in the end.