“Stranger Than Fiction”
“Stranger Than Fiction” begins with a heavy dose of narration and graphics. With the help of these tools we are introduced to a man named Harold Crick, played by Will Ferrell. Harold Crick works for the IRS, and he counts his strokes in the morning (and at night) when brushing his teeth. He lives alone and does everything the same every day of his amusingly pathetic life. All of the sudden Harold pauses…”Hello?” Harold hears the narrator. The narrator is an extremely neurotic, depressive and reclusive author named Kay Eiffel, played by Emma Thompson.
So now we are deeply in the realm of fantasy (most have labeled it a Charlie Kaufmanesque fantasy world. I think that’s a fair comparison); hilariously lame IRS agent suddenly hears the narrator of the film. Of course, she is not just the narrator of the film, but a struggling, once mighty author. Then comes the kicker, she tells him that he will soon die. Now he is really worried. But who to go to with this problem, this narrator in his head writing his life story with startling accuracy? Well, the hippie human resources shrink at his work would love to help, but he doesn’t seem right. A normal shrink insists he is schizophrenic, but off-handedly suggests she is not an expert in literature. Aha! Harold goes to a professor of literature with his problem, and after, really, very little cajoling, the very fun Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman having a ball) agrees to help.
As you may of may not have already guessed there is a love story. Harold meets Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a leftist baker, when he tries to audit her. Of course they hate each other at first, or rather she hates him. After all, he is the taxman, he is auditing her, and he does not have a way with the ladies. But his narrator, or author Eiffel, tells him the different ways he is imagining her, and Harold seems to agree. Suddenly, Harold has a reason to live.
“Stranger Than Fiction” is often very funny. And no, it is not an “Anchor Man” type Will Ferrell film, so much of the press will be about comparisons to Jim Carrey and his cross-over from broad comedy. I think the better comparison is to Adam Sandler in the wonderful and under-seen “Punch Drunk Love.” Just as Sandler did there, here Ferrell is funny by playing a man both very sad and pathetic, an introverted soul the very opposite of his normal characters. He is also not an idiot. He is able to make wry observations about himself. When Professor Hilbert asks him if any one hates him he replies “I work for the IRS, everyone hates me!” And the concept of the film is novel (no pun intended) but the follow thru is rather pedestrian.
First with the good stuff. Here we have a unique twist of the standard hates his life/isn’t living his life but love and the plot with teach him a lesson type film. The script is often very intelligent. I like how Professor Hilbert repeatedly asks Harold if he counted the stairs on the way in to his office. I also like how Professor Hilbert is the faculty life-guard.
The film looks nice enough. Well shot and lit, unobtrusively. Emma Thompson is wonderful, because, after all, she is a wonderful actress. Queen Latifah, as her assistant sent to work her thru her writer’s block, is underused, with little to do.
So what’s wrong with the film? Nothing really, it’s just that the resolution becomes rather predictable. In a film with a number of depressing characters, the resolution is almost laughably uplifting. But the script is smart; there are clues in there that almost suggest the writer is letting us know that he is very aware of the fourth quarter punt the film takes. No matter, for a mainstream Hollywood film it takes risks. It is very funny and often insightful and worth a watch, it just doesn’t quite reach the next level that it almost had in its sights.
Story: B
Stock loser, boring, spineless man realizes his life is being narrated, and written. Eventually gains spine and love.
Acting: B
Solid all around. I liked Ferrell. Hoffman having a blast!
Visuals: B
Nicely put together.
Originality/Innovation: B
Narrator of film actually a novelist somehow writing a man’s life, original. Everything else, not.
Enjoyability Grade: B
Often very funny, lame ending, not quite as risky and innovative of a film as it seems. Art for the masses?
Overall Grade: B-
Something so consistently not as good as it could be deserves a downgrade in the overall realm.
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