Stranger Than Fiction

I'm not really a "movie kind of guy". I rarely if ever go to the theater: it's too pricey for a guy with a big family, and I hate being surprised by a foul movie. So I wait until Andrew Coffin or someone else over at World Magazine reviews one. If it gets hammered by them, I usually avoid it. In the case of Stranger Than Fiction, it happened to be Marvin Olasky (who is, among other things, a University of Texas journalism prof) who reviewed it. He said very nice things about the flick, so last night Carmen and I rented it.

As it turns out, that was just the beginning of a well-spent evening...

We live in a small town, so we don't have a BlockBuster or any other big, national chain to rent flicks from. I like it that way, incidentally. What we do have is K & K Video, a locally owned and operated establishment. The gal that owns the place is a wonderful lady and fine Christian. So as I'm browsing through the aisles, a stranger (to me) walks in and begins doing likewise. She and I, along with the owner, are the only one's in the store.

This stranger happens to ask me where the New Releases section is. I point it out, and we both continue looking for a flick to rent. As the moments pass, she and I begin to make small-talk about movies: how they've gotten so often so foul, which ones she likes, which ones I like, etc... As often happens to me, the next thing I know I'm having a really nice conversation with this woman and with the owner about spiritual matters. It turns out her father was a pastor in her childhood days, and all three of us (sharing an affection for Christ) were discussing racism, its portrayal in books, its pathetic so-called link to the Bible (the ol' Ham = black stupidity). It was a very good conversation, if conversations that trouble and upset you can ever be "good".

So here we were, three Christians (as best I can know) talking about social ills and their Biblical cure.

Then I rented Stranger Than Fiction and went home.

As it turns out, the movie continued a similar theme. In a nutshell, the dominant theme of the flick is that a) the little things in life have value and meaning, and b) even one individual life is more valuable than a cultural masterpiece (whether art, literature, or otherwise).

Don't get me wrong - the flick is not "Christian" in any straightforward way, and does in fact contain some decidedly un-Christian behaviour. But the main theme of the flick is a very Christian one indeed.

Two different 'conversations'; one dominant theme - there are good and Godly answers to the social and cultural problems we face.

It was a good, well-spent evening.

Hatushili