Will Ferrell Beyond SNL and Talladega Nights

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2008)

I'd wanted to see this film for quite some time primarily because I'm an English major and any movie having to do with writers or writing automatically scores high in my book ("Throw Momma From the Train" is still one of my favorite movies and I'll demolish with words anyone who tries to disagree with me) but also because the overall premise, from what the trailers let on, was original and quirky: Harold Crick, a boring everyman who works for the IRS, counts more things than should be counted, and lives a life defined only by the number of people he's audited, wakes up one day to find that his life is being narrated, and rather well at that, by a mysterious voice speaking in third-person omniscient that informs Harold indirectly that he's going to die soon. I didn't see it sooner because the friends who did see it said that it was a mediocre film, touting it with a stream of "Yeah, it was okay"s. Well, my friends, who probably expected typical Ferrell fare, were horrendously wrong, because this movie goes above and beyond the call.
"Stranger Than Fiction" does everything right in a movie; the story is creative, with a no-one being haunted by a faceless narrator, and this movie unlike oh-so-many does NOT take an original premise and cock it all up by selling out to mainstream expectations. Cough cough, Hancock, cough cough. There's a love story involved, but it's well played out and realistic with a minimum of saccharine-drenched sappiness involved. In fact, the story is downright engrossing, because Will Ferrell takes the character of Harold Crick and makes him downright likable; the audience identifies immediately with him and grows to like him more as the character evolves. There's another thing this film has going for it; character arcs. The characters are all well-drawn people that we feel we know, from the gorgeous anarchist baker played to a tee by
actress Maggie Gyllenhall to the eccentric-bordering-on-bonkers lit professor portrayed perfectly by Dustin Hoffman, to Crick himself. There's a lot to be said about Ferrell's performance here; it's not by any means his usual fare of frat-boy antics and over-the-top humor, which is why so many were disappointed. This is genuine acting, the portrayal of a real person in a real (if tossing weird) situation, with real, honest-to-god emotions, and it's here that W.F. shines as the brilliant actor that he is. The laughs arise from the characters naturally in sync with what's going on, and so do the tears.
The story is impossible to describe with any kind of justice; it takes turns and brings in new depth, but we're there with it every step of the way. Every character plays a part in developing things; no one is present just for a joke. For those expecting an outright comedy, you're at the wrong door. For people expecting a quirky, cute comedy-romance, first of all, most of those films aren't really that good, and secondly this isn't one of those films. It's a rare treat; a Hollywood work with a stellar cast that's truly original, beautifully crafted, and almost flawlessly executed. Keep your eye out for the little things that make this film work, from Harold's blueprint-like heads-up display to repetitive appearances of certain characters to the expressions on the actors' faces when they come to a final crossroad with a lovable IRS agent's life in the balance. Eight out of ten stars, each one proudly earned.