Directed by:
Marc ForsterScreenplay:
Zach HelmCinematography:
Roberto SchaeferComposer:
Brian ReitzellCast:
Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson, Tom Hulce, Linda Hunt, Christian Stolte, Kristin Chenoweth, Andrew Rothenberg (more)VOD (3)
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Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) lives a life of solitude. Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) can't seem to find a way to finish her latest book. Though Harold and Kay have never actually met, their fates are about to become intertwined in a most unusual manner. With her publishers growing increasingly impatient with her apparent inability to put the finishing touches on her latest novel, Kay is assigned a new assistant whose task it is to help provide the creative push needed to get her book finished and into the hands of her many eager fans. The subject of Kay's novel is a lonely and despairing IRS agent named Harold Crick, who believes that his life has lost any real meaning. As Kay continues to weave Harold's woeful tale without realizing that her protagonist is actually a living human being unable to concentrate on his life and career due to the constant interference of the narrator who inexplicably seems to anticipate his every move and read his every thought, her continued efforts to kill her perplexed subject finally provide him with the incentive needed to fully experience life by seeking out the source of the voice that plagues him. (Columbia/Sony)
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Reviews (11)
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.
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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...
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Stranger than Fiction is a fresh, inspiring and on-point comedy for an intelligent audience. It offers a deluge of great ideas and cute moments we know from real life but have never seen in a movie. Will Ferrell’s serious acting is a bit too minimalist, but he has great help in the form of the eccentric performances by Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman. I recommend taking a cookie with delicious chocolate icing to the cinema with you.
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"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.
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Just as the current trend in comedies is to showcase the enlightening transformation of an cold office fish into a human being and throw in some chick as a bonus, so Stranger Than Fiction reeks of a spasmodic attempt to define itself against that type of comedy, even though the basic synopsis is the same. Indeed – a bored guy with a face, Will Ferrell, working in the IRS and having no contact with anyone picks up a tattooed, impulsive, left-wing baker, Maggie Gyllenhaal. How many times have we seen this – Fight Club, Yes Man, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Wanted,... Which sucks, because the main idea of blending a literary with a real character is actually a promising one, and the film is even funny and endearing at a few moments. Unfortunately, though, it somehow doesn't bring anything new to the table.
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Gallery (24)
Photo © Columbia Pictures
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