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{{quote|"Who are you?"
"It's me, Ken!"
"... Ken?"
"Look at this guy! You created me, now you doesn't recognize me?" }}
 
Successful author [[Meaningful Name|Harry Block]] has been [[Muse Abuse|routinely mining his real life for material]]. After his latest divorce, he's been dating a young fan of his work - who just left him. Now he has to deal with an upcoming trip to his alma mater, and some of his characters start checking up on him in real life. A pretty poignant case of [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] follows.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Affably Evil]]: {{spoiler|theThe Devil.}}.
{{quote|"To Evil! It keeps things hummin'." }}
* [[Author Avatar]]: To some degreeedegree, each and every main character from Harry's stories resembles him.
* [[Brick Joke]]: One of Harry's (perhaps unfinished) short stories deals with an actor (Mel) going out of focus as he's shooting what appears to be a TV commercial. Later on, {{spoiler|the same thing happens to Harry, in lieu of a panic attack.}}.
* [[The Cameo]]: [[Robin Williams]] as the out-of-focus actor, Tobey Maguire as a young [[Author Avatar]],.
* [[Canon Sue]]: In-universe: "Ken", the main character in Harry's last novel, comes off as a charming, laidbacklaid-back guy, all too happy to explain what went wrong in Harry's life. He's right every time.
{{quote|'''Harry''': "How do you know so much?"
'''Ken''': "Well... I'm just you. Thinly disguised. You gave me a little more maturity. And a different name." }}
* {{spoiler|[[A Chat with Satan]]}}
* [[Critical Psychoanalysis Failure]]: Joan might have needed a lot of help after {{spoiler|being cheated on with one of her patients}} and getting divorced; we know she [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|didn't]] [[Cluster F-Bomb|take it well]].
* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Happened to Harry's mom; his father never quite forgave him for that.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]]: Whatever it is.
* [[Functional Addict]]: Harry sees himself as one, as far as booze and anti-anxiety pills are concerned. Other characters don't agree.
* [[The Fundamentalist]]: Played with, twice:
** In one of Harry's stories, this is the reason his marriage to [[Florence Nightingale Effect|his former psychoanalyst]] failed: after the birth of their son, she rediscovered her Jewish roots, became obsessed with faith and tradition, and ended up leaving Harry for a dashing Israeli patient. In real life, though, {{spoiler|Harry cheated on Joan with one of her patients.}}.
** Then there's Bert, Harry's brother-in-law; an observant Jew who Harry despises to the point of becoming estranged from his sister. {{spoiler|They later briefly reconnect.}}.
* [[High-Class Call Girl]]: The Asian prostitute in one of the stories-within-a-story.
* [[Hollywood Atheist]]: Mostly played for laughs, of the smug variety.
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* [[The Lancer]]: Larry.
* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Borrow a sick friend's apartment, pretend it's your bachelor pad, use his name to introduce yourself to a [[High-Class Call Girl]]... hey, that's [[The Grim Reaper]] at the door. And he won't believe you're not the guy.
* [[May-December Romance]]: Applied twice. Fay, Harry's last girlfriend, {{spoiler|left him for Larry, who's older than her as well: the key difference here is Larry's positive outlook on life. They're married by the end of the movie.}}.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Harry Block, although [[Writer's Block]] is just a symptom of his depression.
* [[Morality Pet]]: Played with. Harry's very fond of his young son Hilliard, who he enjoys spending time with; too bad all his life lessons to the kid are variations on [[Good Is Boring]].
* [[Muse Abuse]]:
* [[Pygmalion Plot]]: Seems to have played a major role in Harry and Fay's romantic relationship; he considered her "a fan, then a pupil", but in the end he fell in love and she didn't truly reciprocate his feelings.
* [[Show Within a Show]]: Harry's stories within the film - and then [[The Reveal]] that {{spoiler|the entire movie is the new story by Harry about himself.}}.
* [[The Shrink]]: Joan and her fictional counterpart.
* [[Sidekick]]: Harry's friend and colleague Richard.
* [[Unproblematic Prostitution]]: Played with: Cookie comes off as a self-assured, reasonably content sex worker, who accepsaccepts Harry's offer of {{spoiler|money in exchange for accompanying him to his old college}} even if she met him a couple hours before (and therefore has no idea whether he could posit a danger to her). She's also treated far more nicely than any other female character in-universe.
{{quote|'''Harry''': "Every hooker I ever speak to tells me that it beats the hell out of waitressing. Waitressing's gotta be the worst fucking job in the world." }}
* [[Villainous BSOD]]: Once the group arrive at Harry's alma mater, {{spoiler|they find out his friend Richard - who they thought was simply dozing off - has died in his sleep, presumably of a heart attack; Harry panics and briefly goes out of focus.}}.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Happens at least twice, with characters from Harry's stories ("Ken" and "Helen", the latter being a mix between his ex-wife and his sister) lecturing him on the mistakes he made in his personal life.
* [[Write Who You Know]]: With almost no exception, Harry's characters are thinly-veiled versions of people he knows; considering in real life he's a bit of a [[Magnificent Bastard]], every time he's got a new novel out, at least one of his personal relationships goes ''very'' sour.
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{{quote|'''Lucy''': "Oh big fucking deal, you gave her large breasts!"
'''Harry''': "Leslie, please..."
'''Lucy''': "''Lucy''. I'm Lucy, motherfucker. ''Not'' Leslie." }}
* [[Your Cheating Heart]]: In his own words, Harry's cheated on each and every one of his wives.
 
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