"Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric

I just realized I only have like four days to fit in songs from all my favorite movies and TV shows and it's probably not going to happen. I have too many favorite movies and TV shows, to go along with having way too many favorite songs. I'm just going to have to get the most bang out of this week while I can and take comfort in knowing that I can do a redux of this theme in another 6 months. Ah, creative freedom! It's almost worth the level of unpaid labor I put into this thing (surprise - I actually put a surprising amount of time into what seems to be unorganized nonsense). But enough about me - let's talk about today's movie.

I first heard this song in what is now one of my top 3 favorite movies - an independent drama starring Will Ferrell at his most charming. I'm talking about "Stranger than Fiction." I didn't know what to expect when I first saw this movie, but I find that's a common characteristic about most of my favorite films. It's a story about a story and, as a writer, that's my weakness. One day, the protagonist, Harold (Will Ferrell), starts hearing a woman narrating his life. As you can imagine, this is a little disconcerting. I mean, it's one thing to narrate your life in your own head (which we all do, my dears - no use denying it), but it's something else entirely when you start hearing someone else do it. In order to figure out what's going on, he enlists the help of a local literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), whose sage advise is to just "see where it goes." Along the way, he meets the love of his life, finally learns guitar, and takes some much needed time to figure out who he is. Eventually, he figures out who is narrating his life - and it's the worst imaginable author. An author (Emma Thompson) who always kills her protagonists. He's hearing her voice because she's almost done writing the book. In a mad dash across the city to find her and plead for his life. She lets him read the ending that she's written down on legal paper. After reading it, Harold tells the writer it's a poetic ending and leaves her to continue writing it. Spoiler alert: She chooses not to kill him....because isn't a man who willingly choose to die for a piece of art worth saving? I think so. If he had died, the ending would've been poetic. But even if it's not as poetic, you're happy that Harold gets his happy ending, too.

When I was a young boy

My mama said to me

"There's only one girl in the world for you

And she probably lives in Tahiti."

I'd go the whole wide world

Go the whole wide world just to find her

I'm a sucker for that moment in movies when the nerdy guy/girl gets his object of affection. It makes me squeamishly happy. It's kind of funny to watch - I sorta kick my legs and giggle like a schoolgirl. I imagine it looks cuter than it sounds. Anyway, "Stranger Than Fiction" has one of those moments. Harold is crushing on this alternative baker beauty, Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal). After auditing her and totally fucking up his first chance, he shows up while she is closing up the bakery, a bouquet of flours in hand. You read that correctly - a baker's dozen of various types of baking flours. It's adorkable and I don't know how she wouldn't have fallen in love right then. So, Ana takes him home and feeds him. After dinner, he's eyeing a guitar one of her customers gave her as payment. After initially refusing to play it, Harold picks up the guitar and starts strumming a classic punk song - Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World." Midway through the song, Ana jumps his bones - as any punk-rock-loving girl would have. I think it's one of my favorite scenes in all of filmdom - definitely up there with the goddamn fish tank scene from "Romeo + Juliet."

Lucky you! I was able to find the flours scene and I'm sharing it here.

"Whole Wide World" Video

"Flours" Scene from "Stranger Than Fiction"