Watched Stranger than Fiction, equal parts annoying and satisfying. On the annoying side, a claustrophobic over-designed feeling not seen onscreen since One Hour Photo. Also annoying: Queen Latifah has nothing to do, and despite the genuinely tender serenading by Will Ferrell (Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World") Maggie Gyllenhaal and he don't actually click. I swear I'm not being a drag -- more feeling came through from the trailers for that Whale Rider-as-Mary film, Will Smith's child labor docudrama, even the freaking Matthew McConaughey football movie. On the upside, Dustin Hoffman, Tony Hale, Linda Hunt, Tom Hulce, Kristen Chenoweth, and at least half of everything Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson do. Noticed that Dustin Hoffman's Chicago lit prof reads Inkwell and some other litmags -- could have been Hanging Loose or Antioch Review, not sure.

As for the meditation on the ethical obligations of creators to their worlds... did I mention that most of the incidental music is by Spoon?