Stranger Than Fiction

"An amazing film," were the words with which D. Moore began his 751st review, as he was delighted to see Will Ferrell finally star in a well-written and directed film, even alongside Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, and would have gone on to praise him even further, but he had to do the urgent business of finding out who the idiot scribbler was who was putting together his own story, and beating out of him the one sensible reason why he was constantly forced to use tiresome, overlong sentences. (05/20/2011)

A fresh and novel existential love story primarily intended for nerds and intellectuals. Despite its relatively normal running time, the film feels too long and plodding. The screenwriter plays with the viewer quite well, but many scenes are unnecessarily drawn out. The uncompromising ending also fails to deliver. (06/09/2024)

I enjoy stories where the stories themselves take center stage. Here, reality seamlessly blends with novelistic reality. Will Ferrell is absolutely incredible, and I still regret that he doesn't make more films like this and instead focuses so much on over-the-top comedies. But the cast is generally awesome in this film. It’s touching and romantic, but not overly so, and there is just the right amount of drama. Perhaps the ending could have been different. Mostly, though, the film gives you a sense of harmony. (03/23/2014)

One of my greatest film experiences of the past year, with excellent acting and a top-notch original screenplay. It is a film about fate, about dying, and about love for life, but presented in a comedic form. The acclaimed writer, who reflects her constant depression and suicidal tendencies in tragic novels, where she ruthlessly destroys her fictional characters, has no idea that her latest protagonist, a dry tax official without imagination, has a real-life image and, by a twist of fate, the writer begins to control his future from above. However, her protagonist hears the story of his life, realizes that his perspective is probably not very joyful, and tries to defy his fate. Forster's movie is full of absurd dialogues, clever directing elements, and truly black humor. Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal are very good in the lead roles, but the biggest star is Emma Thompson as the British writer. The scene where she goes to the hospital for inspiration on how to send off her fictional character from the world, and is dissatisfied because she sees many seriously ill people but none of whom are dying, and she pesters the staff to show her someone about to die, represents, in a way, the pinnacle of how far you can go in terms of black humor in a mainstream film. Stranger Than Fiction is a film based on the game between the individual characters and between the director and the screenwriter on one side, and its audience on the other. A clever piece that doesn't come around often. Overall impression: 95%. (12/29/2009)

I'm pretty amazed at how overrated this film is. I was expecting much more fun, but the result is just an ordinary dramatic love story, cut with a quite original, but drastically underused, idea about a man who is both real and a character in the novel of an author who is about to kill him in the final book. Unfortunately, the central element is not used at all, and jokes are spared as much as possible – not only did I not laugh out loud once, but I literally didn't laugh once during the entire film. And that's quite a problem for a comedy. What I liked is the quality acting duo of Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Ferrel has a very serious role, very unexpected for him compared to his current black humor troll work. All in all, it's a mere drama without a hint of humour or a more substantial use of the main idea, which, although going very much against the grain, bored me madly... (12/28/2022)