Will Ferrell at his finest!

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2006)

I had high expectations for this film, I must say. Marc Forster also directed one of my favourites, Finding Neverland, so I was excited to see how he would direct a comedy. I was wrong, however, about the film being a comedy. There are funny scenes, just a few, but if you are expecting the old "Anchorman" Will Ferrell, that's not what you're getting. Will Ferrell shows a new, more mature side in Stranger than Fiction.
I'm not normally a big Will Ferrell fan. And this film does not make me want to go watch "Talladega Nights", or any of his other zany films, because after seeing how versatile an actor he actually can be, Talladega would just disappoint me. I've heard it said that Stranger than Fiction is Will Ferrell's "Eternal Sunshine." This is almost true. I don't know if Will was allowed to show the emotion that would qualify this as his "Eternal Sunshine", but Stranger than Fiction proves to me that Will Ferrell can do drama, and eventually he will be able to star in a film of that caliber.
Stranger than Fiction concerns Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), an IRS agent, who hears a woman's (Emma Thompson) voice narrating almost everything he does. Just as things start to get interesting for Harold (he falls in love), the narrator declares that Harold's death is imminent. The acting in this film was convincing and intriguing. Dustin Hoffman played the distant literaryprofessor to a tee, and Queen Latifah held her own as the author's assistant. I must say, that Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Thompson's performances were the best of them all. Maggie brought a great depth to her performance as the not-so-typical love interest, and Emma Thompson was fantastic as usual as the author struggling with writer's block, as well as thoughts of suicide. The film was sweet, funny, and at times heartbreaking. One particular quote spoken by Emma Thompson near the end of the film made the film all the more worthwhile. All in all, with a great script, a great plot, great acting, including a surprising performance by Will Ferrell, Marc Forster's Stranger than Fiction does not disappoint!