Movies for writers: The Best

After last week's rant about Limitless I thought I should be positive about some of the movies for writers that exist out there in the big bad Hollywood world. And surprise surprise, it seems that the most important thing in a movie for writers is... character!

In Stranger than Fiction, Will Ferrell is Harold Crick, a quiet man who begins to hear a voice in his head that he identifies as his narrator. It describes every aspect of his life from the mundane (brushing his teeth, walking to work) to his feelings for full-of-life Ana Pascal, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The idea that he is a character in a book is taken with a surreal lack of fanfare, and his search for his author is fascinating as well as touching.

It's great for authors for the investigation into what makes a good story, and whether an author must follow the formula or if they can abandon it to save a beloved character. And then of course for one amazing moment: when Harold finally finds his author and they come face to face. The look on the author's (Emma Thompson's) face is perfect, and it has every writer in the audience wondering, What if I met my character? Would I recognize them like that? What would I do?

Well, what would you do?

Let's ignore that this film was a book first, shall we? It's simpler that way. The Neverending Story sees schoolchild Bastian bullied and unhappy until he hides away in his school's spooky attic (why did my schools never have an incredible attic like this one?) with a very special book. Not only does he get to read the adventures of Atreyu in a fantasy world, but his involvement with the story grows so that he isn't just reading, he's creating the story. Atreyu isn't on his own: Bastian is the real hero. His heroism in the story spills over into real life so he defeats his bullies with newfound courage... and the help of a Luck Dragon.

Not only is this fable for how children (and imaginative adults!) read great books, it's about how a book isn't alive until the readers give it life. As a reader it makes me fondly remember every time I became a hero in the pages of favourite books. As a writer it makes me want to write a book that creates new heroes.

Adaptation begins with Charlie Kaufman sitting at his keyboard, trying desperately to write and wondering if he has an original idea in his head. He's adapting Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief into a movie. He doesn't know where to start. He worries about his life and whether a muffin will help him write. He promises himself a treat if he writes. He puts his hands on the keys. He takes them off again. Repeat.

Charlie agonizes over every detail and we hear it. He puts himself into his story and he changes the characters and their careers, and we see it all happening around him: he's writing his adaptation, and also the one we're watching. His paranoia is weirdly endearing because it's recognizable in every writer. This is someone who cares so much about their writing it dominates every moment of their life, even when they should put it away. His brother Donald (also played by the surprisingly talented Nicholas Cage) attends screenwriting seminars that promise to make everything very easy, and it drives Charlie crazy, because it shouldn't be easy. Yet finally Charlie gives in and goes to one of the seminars, giving us this brilliant moment when he asks the expert about his story, "What if nothing happens?" The expert replies:

"Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it! I don't have any bloody use for it!"

Charlie says, "Okay, thanks."

This is such a great movie for writers it almost fails as a movie. The latter part of it is supposedly written by the other brother and changes from a literary meander to a bewildering thriller. The lessons aren't learned by the characters so much as Charlie, the writer. By the end of it we know nothing about Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, but everything about Charlie Kaufman. That's kind of the point, and and it's kind of a weakness, but completely a strength.

Welcome to the confusing world of writing.

Any other favourite movies for writers out there?