"This may sound like gibberish to you, but I think I'm in a tragedy"

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2007)

Charlie Kaufman is a name that is sure to come up whenever anybody discusses 'Stranger than Fiction (2006).' The screenwriter had absolutely nothing to do with this film, but the plot is so reminiscent of 'Being John Malkovich (1999)' and 'Adaptation (2002)' that either his works were an influence on writer Zach Helm, or the two received their inspiration from a common source. Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an auditor with the IRS, a position that doesn't afford him the luxury of having many friends. He spends his life immersed in numbers, mathematics, routine and regulations. However, one morning Harold begins to hear a woman's voice inside his head, narrating his every thought and action. Though the people around him attribute the voice to schizophrenia, Harold comes to suspect that he is actually a fictional character, his future dictated by the omniscient author inside his head, and so he seeks the advice of a literature professor, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman).
'Stranger than Fiction' is one of those rare examples of a fresh and original movie idea that redeems your faith in Hollywood's ability to think up something new. Whatever his influences, first-time screenwriter Zach Helm has penned a fun, thoughtful and meaningful script that plays about with a complex abstract idea in a way that is easily followed by the viewer. Director Marc Forster seems to have dabbled in a selection of different genres in the past {he followed 'Monster's Ball (2001)' with 'Finding Neverland (2004)'}, and here he brings together a variety of different emotions, creating a comfortable balance of comedy, romance and tragedy. 'Stranger than Fiction' also has a pleasant visual style, and computer graphics are used cleverly to demonstrate Harold's tendency to count everything he sees, as well as his lifestyle's dependence upon clockwork timing in everything he does.
I've always been a fan of Will Ferrell's comedy work, and nobody can match his talent for throwing a hissy fit. However, here he gives a remarkably restrained performance, playing Harold Crick as quiet, shy and sensitive, quite apart from anything else I've ever seen him do. It goes without saying that Dustin Hoffman is one of the acting greats of his generation, and, though his role in this film is rather low-key, there's no denying his flawless comedic timing, as well as that perfectly gutting moment when Hilbert bluntly informs Harold: "you have to die; it's a masterpiece." Emma Thompson is also excellent as Karen Eiffel, a famous tragedy author and, incidentally, Harold's narrator, well-known for killing off her "fictional" protagonists in unique and poetic ways. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also notable as Ana Pascal, a tax-evading baker who falls in love with Harold and helps show him the joy of life.
All great stories must possess a similarly great ending, and unfortunately this is the one facet of 'Stranger than Fiction' that I am in two minds about. The film undoubtedly chose to take the more crowd-pleasing route, betraying the film as a comedy rather than a tragedy, with author Karen Eiffel deciding that a selfless man's life is too much price to pay for a literary masterpiece. One can admire her sentiment, and the positive message that the film is trying to make, but there's no denying that the finale loses much of its potency once the happy ending comes into play. Even more bafflingly, the filmmakers seem well aware that this is the case, with Hoffman's character declaring that Eiffel's revised ending is "OK" rather than the flawlessness that he had read earlier. Perhaps it's just the film-lover in me, but I was devastated that the perfect ending had gone begging, and would gladly have accepted it in exchange for Harold Crick's life. But, then again, what if Harold Crick had been a real person?