Choice against fate when fiction collides with reality.

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2006)

Stranger Than Fiction is a quirky black comedy about Harold Crick, an average man with a fascination and preoccupation for numbers, who discovers that he is apparently little more than a character in someone else's story and that the course of his life appears to have been scripted. Everything he does and thinks is narrated as he does and thinks it, so after the realisation that he's not actually going mad he tries to find out what is really going on.
I liked this film a lot - it had elements of similarly themed films where fictional worlds intersect and influence the real world and vice versa, such as The Hours and The Purple Rose Of Cairo. Yet it takes this concept in a new direction and touches on the philosophies of choice and fate - if the story of our lives is already written, can we change the script? Does knowing what the future holds influence our lives or are we just following a predestined course whatever we do? As you might expect Marc Foster gives good and capable direction and there are lots of elements of the film that were really very enjoyable. Some scenes are maybe drawn out too long, but for the most part he manages to keep the film flowing smoothly. The 'mathematical images' which beautifully illustrate the clockwork mind of Harold Crick are a great idea and reminiscent of the Ikea scene from Fight Club.
The acting on the whole was of an excellent standard. Will Ferrell's dry delivery was absolutely perfect for the role of a man with his fate in the hands of a seemingly unknown force. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah all give very respectable performances as does the relatively unknown Tony Hale. Yet I felt that the gem in this film had to be Emma Thompson's performance as the neurotic and fidgety author Kay Eiffel who seems to become increasingly unstrung as the film progresses.
I was lucky enough to get to see a test screening of this film tonight. I was expecting a generic Hollywood romantic comedy yet the storyline was sufficiently quirky and engaging, and performances were superb, giving it a rightful place alongside other great modern black comedies.