Stranger Than Fiction

No screenplay credit is displayed on Holly Randall's "Stranger than Fiction", emblematic of what's wrong with the movie. Wicked Pictures continues to release many a narrative film even though fans prefer gonzo, and this one fails to justify its existence.

Opening segment is promising: a period piece seeming to date from the WWII era, with Aaliyah as a nurse tending in a tent (very cheap set) to wounded soldier Jake Adams.

They reminisce about their mutual friend Charley who has perished, and Jake gives Love Charley's American flag. Then he takes Charley's place and has sex with her in a sentimental but erotic vignette significant for her vintage lingerie.

After Jake's money shot, a comical transition takes us to the movie's story: lovely but nerdy Kenna James at her computer working on the fictional scene we've just watched, as a copy editor at Brad Armstrong's publishing house. Aaliyah's scene is from "Tragedy Between the Sheets".

Secretly, she's a romance novelist whose first book "A Modern Woman" is a hit, written under the pseudonym Maxine Powers. Her boss (Brad) plans an unveiling party for Maxine in connection to signing her to a $4 million, 5-book deal, and Kenna starts role-playing as her alter ego Maxine.

Instead of sitcom hijinks we get sex scenes and a very tame rivalry between Kenna and company v.p. Ana Foxxx who holds great disdain for her. Director Randall does a poor job establishing Kenna's secret identity as Maxine (basically our lovely star hiding under a Louise Brooks styled black wig) or when she is "dramatically" unmasked by Ana. The movie remains placid and utterly cornall at every turn, particularly when Brad seems to be posturing for a fake Industry acting award when he overdoes a turgid speech defending Kenna as the nerd turned novelist, along with mom's apple pie, etc.

Small Hands figures in sex scenes with Kenna and Ana, his full-body Yakuza tattoos way too distracting. As male romantic lead and fellow novelist, Damon Dice is wooden throughout.