Review of Stranger Than Fiction (2006) by Javier G — 25 Jun 2012

It's all about perception.

When I first saw the trailers for STRANGER THAN FICTION, I was excited to watch it. It looked different and new, something the likes of which we rarely see in movies these days. I am happily surprised to see I was right.

Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an I.R.S. agent. Harold's life is like his work; very monotonous, quite fastidious, and full of rules. It's a dull and boring life and would be of no account to anyone except for one thing...it's not actually his. No, Harold's life is a manuscript for a upcoming novel by Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson). She hasn't written a novel in a decade and this is her triumphant return to the literary stage except for one problem, a big one for Harold who learns of it through a voice, Kay's voice, that he suddenly begins hearing in his head. The problem is simple, Kay wants Harold dead but doesn't know how to kill him in her book. As you may imagine, for Harold, writer's block is not the problem but a temporary reprieve for him to find her and stop her because even though his life doesn't seem worth living, he doesn't want it to end.

It's a very neat and imaginative retelling of the "If you knew you were going to die what would you do?" theoretical question people like to ask each other sometimes. That alone would have made this an enjoyable comedy. Find the writer and stop her with comedic mishaps along the way. In a very self-referential way, STRANGER THAN FICTION plays with the idea of whether the book being written about Harold is, in fact, a tragedy where he does die or a comedy where it seems like he will but ends with a better life. We've all seen this formula in books and films before of course but the film manages to make us wonder about the same thing about the movie as we wonder it about the fictional book within it's plot. It's quite ingenious.

So it's add one part comedy, one part tragedy and one part puzzle and we're left with something that equals more than the sum of its parts. Unlike other films I have seen (and reviewed recently) that try to make a better movie by adding parts of other formulas, this one succeeds and it does so in spades. With Ferrell you most certainly are guaranteed to get laughs but the addition of the main character's impending death, as part of the tragedy, gives the movie a philosophical edge about life and inspires Harold to do "what countless punk-rock songs had told him to do so many times before: he lived his life." As cheesy as it sounds to say about a movie, I think it inspires those of us watching as well and it does it so well that it makes me wonder why it's cheesy to say it in the first place.

Entertainment Value - 1 & 1/2 Stars: Obviously, I enjoyed it very much.

Storytelling - 1 Star: It does such a good job playing with themes and plot devices as part of it's examination of Harold's "book" but only the daft would not apply the same to the movie and glean so much more out of the story.

Characters and Dialogue - 1 Star: This might be Ferrell's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF S SPOTLESS MIND. Sure there are moment's where he gets a little spastic but overall he plays the straight man remarkably coming to discover the passion in his life remarkably well. Hoffman as a literature professor helping Harold who incidentally happens to be somewhat infatuated with Thompson's neurotic writer are both (mostly) understated but nonetheless brilliant performances.

Production - 1/2 Star: Even inanimate objects were characters of, well, character and charm. Had I a wristw*tch, I might never look at it the same way again. The unnamed city and its look, the I.R.S. office with it's cubicle maze and long rows of files boxes, and the buses all added to the experience.

Directing and Editing 1 Star: I can't find anything to fault them for. Pacing, cuts and cinematography all seemed right on the money.