Stranger Than Fiction, Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, Dustin Hoffman; dir. Marc Forster
This is not your mother’s Will Ferrell. Well, more aptly, it’s not my brother’s Will Ferrell. If you know Ferrell only from his stereotype-based parodying of the American male, do yourself a favor and pick up this movie. Imagine: You are a workaday shlub, even worse, and IRS agent whose life is all about numbers. Imagine that one day, as you are brushing your teeth (39 strokes back and forth, 39 strokes up and down—or maybe that’s 38), you suddenly hear a voice. Not voices; a voice. Imagine that you soon discover that someone is narrating your life. Are you crazy? Maybe. But no, it seems that someone is actually narrating Harold Crick’s life. And death. “Little did Harold know that at that moment he marked his impending death.” (Okay, that’s not the exact line, and Zach Helm is a better writer than I.) Ferrell delivers not broad comedy, not slapstick, but satire, a postmodern narrative of love (Gyllenhaal, who has a beauty that rises from inside, plays an anarchic baker who pays only the portion of her taxes that will go to social services and other good stuff) and life, of moments seized and stolen, of nobility by accident or at least by surprise. His Harold Crick may just go down as one of fiction's (or at least filmdom's) great reluctant heroes. Of course, the other acting talents don’t hurt, the story is utterly absorbing, and the direction, at first gimmicky, is just what the story needs (watch the use of CGI charts and scientific-seeming numbers and notations). I laughed, a lot, and I nearly cried, at least twice. Oh, and the excitement for the art of storytelling evidenced by the director and the writer—never mind the actors—is nearly palpable. I mean, who makes a joke that depends on the line, “That’s called third-person omniscient”?
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4 comments:
I agree with everything you said. I thought that it was great that we saw a different side of will. We got to see a more sensible side that is still a comedy. I loved the idea of the same voice narrating the whole movie.
I haven't seen this movie yet. But it's good that it's not like your normal Will Ferrel, he's being serious for once. I like how there is a 3rd person view telling a story that you don't know where it's coming from persay. As the auther is writing his book, Will Ferrel is experiancing his life through the eyes of somebody else. He lives his life the way someone is telling it. This sounds like good movie to watch . I'll make a note to watch it.
I saw this movie when it first came out and I thought it was very good actually. It was kind of a quirky little side track movie. Will Farrel is one of my favorite actors and I've seen everyone of his movies, I know I'm a geek. I can't wait to see his new movie coming out, I forget what it's called but it looks really funny. Anyways back to my comment here, Stranger Than Fiction was a very interesting movie with a odd look to it. Will was apart of the book that the writer was writing. Towards the end it almost had an aspect of suspence to it, because you didn't know if Will was going to die, go out with the bakery girl, or what! The actual ending that ended up on screen was very good. Overall i like the movie and would give it about 4 stars.
When I first saw this I didn't like it that much because sadly I am used to Will Ferrell in roles such as Step Brothers and Anchorman. But after considering it, I decided it wasn't half bad.
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