When a movie gets ‘the writer’s’ attention

A movie, unlike just written words, relies on motion pictures to convey meaning. However, it becomes an invaluable asset to writers when the themes revolve around literature. Thus, movies such as ‘Stranger than Fiction,’ ‘Finding Forrester,’ ‘Undercover Angel,’ and many more, stir up the writer because their story lines explore literature and writers’ experience in […]

A movie, unlike just written words, relies on motion pictures to convey meaning. However, it becomes an invaluable asset to writers when the themes revolve around literature. Thus, movies such as ‘Stranger than Fiction,’ ‘Finding Forrester,’ ‘Undercover Angel,’ and many more, stir up the writer because their story lines explore literature and writers’ experience in a revealing manner that inspires as well as educates.
Stranger than fiction by Zack Helm
This movie becomes gripping when its major character, Harold Crick (real name, Will Ferrel), begins to hear a voice that narrates his every action in a story  telling voice: The number of strokes he makes while brushing his teeth, the steps he counts when walking to work and virtually everything he does. This upsets Crick to the point where he sees a psychologist, then a literary expert. He soon discovers he is a major character in a novelist’s unfinished work. To make matters worse, this same writer is known for killing off her major character at the end of her story.
The writer, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is later shown to be suffering from writer’s block, a state where inspiration is in limbo and a writer gets stuck. When a body is shown falling from a building, the viewer would catch his or her breath, guessing a suicide or murder. But then, the writer is shown atop with her eyes shut, hands spread wide as though in flight, but she is only researching and imagining how best to kill Crick, her supposedly fictitious major character. Again, yet another scene reveals a boy on a bike, then a truck and an obstacle that comes in the way. Here, an accident takes place. All these are her unsatisfactory efforts in perfecting the killing of her major character at the end of the novel.
Karen’s writer’s block experience may not be new to many writers who would marvel at the power of imagination she displays while at the same time empathising and drawing from the revelations made in the story. At the end of the movie, insights into her research experience, her handling of writer’s block and the way she plans to perfect the killing of her character, first in her mind, makes it an enjoyable and intriguing treat for writers.
Finding Forrester by Mike Rich
When Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown),a remarkable basketball player, breaks into the apartment of a recluse, William Forrester (Sean Connery),he was unaware of how it would change his life. He runs out of the apartment when the theft does not work out his way, leaving his backpack behind. This single deed would lead to a series of events where Forrester, after discovering that Wallace has an interest in writing, would begin to mentor him, up till a point where he would amaze his school with his performance in an essay writing contest.
Wallace was accused of plagiarism and would later be rescued when Forrester shows up at his school to defend him. It shocked his listeners, both students and staff when Forrester, after reading an essay that receives applause reveals that it is Wallace’s work, thus demonstrating how an unknown writer may be viewed as mediocre until his work is given a chance or it succeeds in proving its worth beyond any reasonable doubt.
‘Finding Forrester’ shows how a neglected artistic skill can remain unnoticed when not harnessed, while portraying the indispensability of mentoring. Although this is an American movie, it brings Nigeria to mind, where young and upcoming writers find it difficult to ascend the literary ladder probably because there is a poor enabling environment where such talents are not honed.  
Undercover Angel by Bryan Michael Stoller
This movie begins with a scenario where a man pursues a woman in an alley with the intention to cause her harm, but suddenly his phone rings. The scene changes, showing a man typing exactly what was happening in the latter scenario on his typewriter while his phone rings. This man, Harrison (Dean Winters), is a young struggling freelance writer who has never been published, but is bent on achieving that goal. Events reach an interesting turn when a former girlfriend he has not seen for seven years, shows up and asks him to baby-sit her six-year-old daughter, Jenny (Emily Mae Young). This child turns out to be the source of inspiration for him when she asks him to create bed-time stories for her. Unknown to him,each night she puts on a voice recorder he gave her as a gift, befriends Holly (YasmineBleeth), a girl he admires, and asks her to transcribe the stories.
Unable to pay his rent and short of money, Harrison one day gets a surprising phone call from a book publishing company where his manuscript was submitted without his knowledge. They informed him that they found his story hilarious and immediately offered him a publishing deal.
Probably, every unpublished writer looks forward to such a breakthrough when the phone would ring or an email is sent to inform that his or her manuscript is found worthy of publication. However, a few things are obvious here– It took a nudge from a child and her attachment to Mr. Dodo,her favourite stuffed animal to help Harrison create an intriguing story that shifted his focus from being a writer of adult stories to a children’s story writer.