Review of STRANGER THAN FICTION

STRANGER THAN FICTION - STORY: A man discovers he's a character in a story and must confront the author so that she doesn't kill him off like all her other characters.
STRANGER THAN FICTION - MESSAGE: Reaching out from the confines of solitary habits can lead to love, life and freedom.
STRANGER THAN FICTION - WIN: The author was responsible for causing things that happened in the real world. A person need not accept their assigned fate but step up to avert it. Doing the right thing is more important than what others think. Total withdrawal brings bad things upon one. Opening up to other viewpoints can expand ones own. Promotes cookies. The ability to face a tough situation can bring one out of it alive. It chose the right answer for the problem, addressing the true cause of the actual problem. It immediately negated the idea of getting high on psychiatric drugs as a solution. It showed a person, an assistant, helping a person, using just the right amount of good control. It made idiosyncracies into character traits not mental illness. It rewarded noble action. It was true to emotional tones.
STRANGER THAN FICTION- LOSE: It promoted sex out of wedlock. Promotes smoking as something quirky to do (or the drug of choice to address neurosis.) To a slight degree it promoted protesting the IRS by not paying funds generally considered due (aka Theft.) Also, my understanding is that ALL money collected by the IRS goes to pay the banks that loan the government money. The things the baker said her IRS money went to, I don't believe it does; those things are funded by local, state, property taxes, etc.
STRANGER THAN FICTION - EFFECT ON ME: As a writer, it made me want to write my characters more as people. Made me want to write distinct characters. It made me want to do good in my life, and reap the effects of doing so. It made me aware that people in general have idiosyncracies (like how they brush their teeth) and perceptions (file folders sliding against each other sound a bit like waves) and viewpoints stemming from their jobs, etc. (a literary professor used to analyzing "rules" of story addressing something differently than a creative person who can break the rules to serve the story.)

Sincerely,
Becky Mate
Script Consultant
www.virtueinthearts.com