By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Dustin Hoffman | Emma Thompson | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Queen Latifah | Will Ferrell
Country: united_states
Year: 2006
Running time: 113
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/
Michael says: “Despite rather major concessions to plot, and the fact that Scot and I came up with better motivations for certain characters to make the plot work better, I found STRANGER THAN FICTION to be a valiant piece of filmmaking with terrific performances that left me nearly 100% satisfied. I remember seeing this preview in the theaters, and how it was presented as a slightly more serious Will Ferrell comedy, due to the presence of more ‘serious’ actors as Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and direction from indie filmmaker Marc Forster (MONSTER’S BALL). The trailer certainly presented it as more of a comedy than it actually is, made slightly intriguing by the speculative nature of the storyline.
“What if you woke up one day and started hearing a mysterious disembodied voice narrating your life? You slowly discover that your life, your very identity is actually a character in a novel. This is what happens to Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), IRS auditor who counts the number of strokes he uses while brushing his teeth, and the number of steps it takes to get to the bus stop each day. Those watching the film know that this narrator is none other than Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a well-respected author whose last finished work was published ten years ago. Now she struggles with writer’s block while writing her latest novel about one, Harold Crick. The problem is, all of Eiffel’s novels end with the death of her protagonist. When Harold catches wind of his impending doom through Eiffel’s narration, he seeks aid from literature professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) to help him navigate this bizarre turn his life has taken. Meanwhile, Eiffel’s publisher has sent an assistant, Penny Escher (Queen Latifah) to help her get past her block and complete her novel. Oddly enough, whether through Eiffel’s plotting, or Crick’s own realization that he might die at any moment, his life takes a turn for the better, as he sheds the rigid and lonely routine to explore what it really means to live. This includes wooing Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhall), the young baker who he is auditing, and finally buying a guitar and learning how to play it. Invariably and surreally, Crick’s and Eiffel’s paths eventually cross, and the moral conflict of the film becomes whether or not the author can complete her novel as she has conceived it, thus committing her protagonist, now a very real human being, to die. As I said before, there are a couple of huge holes in the plot (large portions of Crick’s life are not part of Eiffel’s novel; how can any morally sane human being, upon finding her actions responsible for another’s life knowingly allow them to die) that could have been corrected in the screenplay. Still, first-time feature screenwriter Zack Helm gently spins a fanciful fantasy yard in the screenplay he has written, bolstered by Forster’s inventive direction and the casts uniformly strong performances.
“It should come as no surprise that Gyllenhaal and Thompson are outstanding. Halfway through the film I had to exclaim out loud, ‘I love Maggie Gyllenhaal,’ after a wonderful scene where she tells Crick how she became a baker. A more real, yet tenderly drawn scene I have rarely witnessed on screen. Thompson is delightful as an oddly neurotic hermit who is also a brilliant writer obsessed with death. More surprising was the effectively restrained use of both Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah, neither of which are known for their subtlety. Hoffman adds quirky humor and slightly pretentious airs to his intrigued yet kindly professor. Latifah’s character would have benefited from Scot and my own rewrite, altering her motivations to give more plausibility to the tale, but her understated, compassionate, yet business-like performance gave Thompson something to play off of. Most surprising for me was the beautifully restrained, and subtly heartbreaking performance by Will Ferrell. You often read reviews of big-name comedian/actors known for their wacky roles praising them for their reigned-in ‘serious’ roles (Jim Carrey in THE TRUMAN SHOW; Robin Williams in GOOD WILL HUNTING, etc.) then I see the films in question and think, ‘same old shtick.’ Surprisingly, in Harold Crick, Ferrell displays actual acting, creating a humorous, yet completely sympathetic hero without relying on shtick, and creating a three-dimensional character. Cameo/supporting roles by Linda Hunt, Tom Hulce, and Kristen Chenoweth were surprising, effective and entertaining.
“So despite its script flaws, I was able to thoroughly enjoy STRANGER THAN FICTION, more for its fantasy/romance qualities than its speculative fiction. 4 cats.”