As it turns out, Karen Eiffel, a talented but depressed novelist who’s famous for killing her protagonists, is Harold's author. In fact, the story suggests that the reason Harold's life has been so monotonous lately is that Karen has a deadly case of writer's block and can't figure out a way to kill her novel's Harold.

The rest of the movie is a race with time, as Harold tries to find Eiffel and plead for a new ending. But to speed the author along, her publisher has assigned her a helpmate in circumspect Penny Escher (Queen Latifah) to make sure she actually finishes her novel "Death and Taxes" in which Crick is the star.

First-time screenwriter Zach Helm's release echoes story-within-a-story storylines of such movies as Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. But Stranger Than Fiction is nonetheless a highly original comedy that's both intellectual and warmhearted. Director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) meanwhile paints the screen with cool imagery to illustrate the numbers-driven workings of Harold's world.