Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! If your sweetheart is a fellow writer and you’re planning a movie night for Thursday (or, like me, you are celebrating Singles Awareness Day and need verification that you are not alone in the world), try one of these three writerly movies (okay, only one is technically a romance, but work with me here).
Inkheart
A bookbinder with the power to make literature come alive by reading aloud must dodge the villain he let out of a fantasy novel, while trying to rescue his wife, who’s been trapped in the same book.
Why it’s a must-see:
- Favorite pieces of literature stumbling into the real world
- Author-meets-characters scenes
- It’s a decent adaptation of the book (I highly recommend reading the whole trilogy, which is a more mature, in-depth exploration of the concept)
Meggie: You’ve been to Persia, then?
Elinor: Yes, a hundred times. Along with St. Petersburg, Paris, Middle-Earth, distant planets and Shangri-la. And I never had to leave this room. Books are adventure. They contain murder and mayhem and passion. They love anyone who opens them.
Midnight in Paris
What it’s about:
A hack Hollywood screenwriter aspiring to be a novelist is vacationing in modern-day Paris when he stumbles through a time rift and ends up partying with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Elliot.
Why it’s a must-see:
- Who hasn’t dreamed about talking life and literature with their favorite authors?
- Owen Wilson is adorable
- Quotes like this:
Gil: I would like you to read my novel and get your opinion.
Ernest Hemingway: I hate it.
Gil: You haven’t even read it yet.
Ernest Hemingway: If it’s bad, I’ll hate it. If it’s good, then I’ll be envious and hate it even more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.
Stranger Than Fiction
What it’s about:
An author struggles to think of the most poetic way to kill off her main character, unaware that the character can hear her narrating his life and is doing everything he can to avoid his imminent death.
Why it’s a must-see:
- More author-meets-character type stuff
- It explores the remorse a writer feels from killing off beloved characters
- It questions the value of tragic endings versus happy ones
- Dustin Hoffman is hilarious as the rather indifferent literature professor who advises Harold:
Professor Hilbert: Little did he know. That means there’s something he doesn’t know, which means there’s something you don’t know, did you know that?
–
What’s your favorite writing-related movie? Tell me in the comments!
–
