Stranger Than Fiction

April 30, 2007

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 113 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Stranger Than Fiction is a romantic comedy in that there is a romance, and it is a comedy… but that classification just doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe it’s because it’s really not very funny, and it’s not that much of a romance either. Let’s call it a Fantasy / Dramedy?

Stranger Than Fiction Will Ferrell is Harold Crick, an IRS agent by day and.. well.. IRS agent by night. Other than work his schedule is pretty much open. He gets up at the same time every day, follows an exacting schedule (including precise breaks for coffee) and goes to bed at the exact same time each night. We assume he does something boring on the weekends, but it’s never mentioned in the movie. One morning while brushing his teeth Harold hears a voice… talking about him brushing his teeth. He hears it again while getting dressed… talking about him tying his tie.

After a few days (and a few amusing outbursts) he goes to see a shrink. She says he’s a schizophrenic while he just thinks he has a narrator. To that end she suggests he talk with someone versed in literature, so he ends up visiting a college literature professor (Dustin Hoffman.) At this point you’d be forgiven for thinking “yeah right, like the shrink would have suggested that.. and the professor would actually believe him!” and you’re right, neither thing would really happen. But Will manages to play Harold in such a sympathetic “everyman” fashion that for a moment you do think people would want to believe him just because he’s such a nice guy.

His narrator turns out to be Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a noted author who is trying to get past a bad case of writers block on her current novel. She of course has no idea that everything she writes concerning Harold Crick actually happens to him, and she’s currently trying to figure out how to kill him off.

Oh yeah, the romance. Harold is in the process of auditing Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a local baker who decided she didn’t want to fund the war in Iraq so she reduced her tax payment by the amount that would have gone to the defense budget. On a side note, I really like this idea… a line item veto on your taxes! I’d fund defense, but I’d really like to skip payment on the various entitlement programs and pork barrel projects that Congress keeps spending my money on. ANYWAY, Harold becomes smitten with Ana and since learning from his narrator that he is destined to die soon he decides to pursue her.

At this point it’s the typical “live for today cause you don’t know what tomorrow holds” type of story line, a little sappy but it’s interesting to watch Harold come out of his shell to pursue his interests. Usually a movie will go over the top at this point with the main character doing really stupid things, but in keeping with the low key nature of Harold, his desires are much more realistic and obtainable. This is also the point of the movie where you’ll say to yourself “damn, Will Ferrell can actually act!” You read that correctly.. Will Ferrell can act. Do NOT be surprised if he starts getting non-comedy roles at some point.

Stranger Than Fiction is a date movie, one that will certainly increase your odds of getting a little action on the couch. Even if you don’t have someone to watch this one with I think it’s worth seeing, it’s just a darn good movie. A solid 4 stars.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Comedy, DVD, Drama, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, PG-13, Queen Latifah, Will Ferrell