Too many thoughts to put into one summary line

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2007)

Stuff like "Critics of Will Ferrell need see this movie and reconsider" or "Charlie Kaufmann and Spike JOnze could've wrote this!" were some of the ideas that came to mind to sum the way I felt about this movie,but they really couldn't do this justice. THere's plenty of themes being played with in this off-beat,gentle and existential comedy,and I'm gonna TRY to cover all of them in this comment/review.
FBI auditor HArold Crick(Will Ferrell,as docile and somber as he's EVER been in film to this point)lives the highly ordered,lonely lifestyle of someone who would be considered a nearly hermit-like control freak. Numbers,stats and equations are very much the gatekeepers of order in his world,and he approaches his job,just like everything else,with a sense of professionalism and efficiency. He has few friends,no discernible family,and has no great ambitions and goals in life.
Somewhere through the order of work and life4,two things create a disruption:the interest he's feeling stir in him over a pretty,bakery manager he's about to audit(Maggie Gyllenhaal,whose large,pretty facial features and warm,sexy body language are as enticing as I've witnessed of any female lead in a comedy) and the small matter of a narrator's voice that has been correctly and acutely describing Harold's life that he(And only he)can hear. When he discovers that the voice is not only accurately describing every element of his life,but is hinting at his imminent demise,he starts to slowly realize that while he may be the center of his own narrative world,he is most certainly not in control of it.
While this happens,dyspeptic author and recluse KAren "KAy" Eiffel(Emma Thompson,who looks like she's been on a steady diet of black coffee,cigs and little-or-no sleep for weeks)wrestles with writer's block over her next novel,which has been on hold for over a decade. Sent to her is a no-nonsense editor's assistant(Queen Latifah,who is showing that she can dial it up as well as down with equal amounts of effectiveness) there to help tighten her finishing of the novel she's trying in great frustration to finish. The book Kay is trying to finish involves the mundane life and appropriate-yet-somewhat ironic demise of one very unremarkable character,one by the name of HArold Crick.
As HArold tries to track the source of his distress,through shrinks and anyone who'll listen,he instinctively goes for the counsel of a English professor and literary expert named Hilbert(Dustin Hoffman,paternal,droll and patient;not qualities ordinarily admired in a performance for films,but very necessary here,and as such,very well done!),who tries to infuse guidelines for whether or not Harold's life falls into two basic literary constructs:comedy or tragedy. While HArold's quest to find a clear difference between the two elements seems to yield mixed results,it starts to clear things gradually to the IRS auditor that his life needs a narrative direction,and he may or may not have much time to figure that out.
Directed by untraceable auteur Marc Forrester(unless YOU can link MOnster's Ball and Finding Neverland to this type of film) and written by relative new-by scribe Zack Helm,this movie would be oh SO easy to pigeonhole as an existential comedy or light drama,but it feels like more than that. It's kind of a knowing Dramady,a film and story that understands the constructs of narrative creation,and has the ingenuity to parallel that across the type of mundane,unextraordinary lives that ordinary people live. Ferrell shows great restraint in the role as Crick,but really everyone here seems to fit their roles with ease. Even minor parts such as the one friend Crick considers from work(Tony Hale)or the two shrinks who seem helpless in finding the root of his dilemma(Linda HUnt and a hirsute,heavy and unrecognizable Tom Hulce) are added with the right measure. This is a film that may test the patience of more direct,linear film-goers,and the ending(and this as close a spoiler I'm giving)seems to be somewhat of an awkward fit for the way this film builds, but this is arguably a very memorable movie and it somewhat defies an easy description. See it for yourself,and see if you don't agree.