Stranger than fiction, but much better than average

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2006)

Marc Forster's latest film maybe stranger than fiction, but thankfully it's also much better than the average movie playing at your local theater, well almost. It's seems that ever since Scorsese's Departed just about every week there's been a new movie that's actually really good and finally there seems to be a reason to keep returning to the movies. Hey, they're finally making some good stuff for a change! In Stranger than Fiction Will Ferrell plays a calm and orderly IRS auditor named Harold Crick; a man who lives for his job, day in and day out. Harold seemingly has one friend at work, Dave (played by Tony Hale, formerly of TV's Arrested Development), no private relationships and no personal life what-so-ever, and his entire existence is about getting up and going to and from work. Harold is stuck in a never-ending routine that is disturbed one morning while brushing his teeth. While counting the number of brush strokes Harold begins to hear a strange woman's voice narrating the things he's doing as he's doing them. The voice is that of Kay Eiffel, a depressed, chain smoking and very talented author whose come down with a serious case of writer's block. When Harold discovers that Kay's novels are quite famous for their tragic endings, where the hero always dies, he seeks the help of literary professor Jules Hibert, played by the always entertaining Dustin Hoffman, to help get to the bottom of Harold's problem.
Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson gives a wonderfully distressed performance as the author that shakes up Harold's life, and Queen Latifah plays an assistant brought in to help Kay break through her writer's block and get back to finishing her new novel. Harold is driven crazy by the voice of the narrator in his head, and is heart is aching for a feisty young woman named Ana, played with a free and wild spirit by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who he's assigned to audit for failing to pay all her taxes as a way of sticking' it to the government. As Harold comes closer and closer to his demise he falls in love with Ana and discovers how sweet life can be with just a few cookies and a glass of milk. Life can be so sweet; we just have to go after it, each and every day. But time is running out for Harold and he is desperately trying to track down this mysterious author while there's still time to stop her from finishing her novel.
Director Marc Forster, whose last films included last year's Stay and the imaginative Finding Neverland has crafted a wonderfully entertaining and equally smart film with some great performances from one of the best ensemble casts this year, right next to Little Miss Sunshine. Will Ferrell gives what is easily his best performance of his career, and his most sincerely enjoyable since Elf. Stranger than Fiction does for Will Ferrell what Eternal Sunshine did for Jim Carrey; it's just the right material for the right actor, and I'd love to see Farrell do more roles like this one and lay off the Anchorman kind of stuff for awhile and give him some room to grow as an actor. I don't know what its Oscar chances are, but given the films that have already come out this fall in my book all bets are off; expect a very close and interesting Oscar race.
Stranger than Fiction is part comedy, part drama and part romance; there's a little bit of something for everyone. I found myself getting so wrapped up in the film's premise and constantly thinking to myself; "How is this all going to come together in the end?" so much so I was never bored for a single moment and not only was I fascinated with it's ideas, but I was also quite touched emotionally with it's engaging performances. I really enjoyed this movie, and more importantly its message. Yes, on the surface Stranger than Fiction may look like a Charlie Kaufman-esquire psycho-babble "weird $hit happens" movie in the vein of Being John Malkovich or Adaptation, but beneath it all there's something that those films didn't quite have  a beating heart, without all the cynicism.