A bland, cliché of a movie

Rating: 2/10 (25 December 2013)

I am so angered at having sat through this movie that i have registered an account with IMDb just so i can write this review and spare someone else the torment i have just been subjected to.
I enjoy a Will Ferrell movie to sit back,laugh and relax into, finding comfort in his recognizable comedy style. However I was aware that the mere concept behind Stranger than Fiction would not lend well to the Ferrell i had become accustomed to but his usual humor still shone through. Add such greats as Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson and i was expecting something memorable with a certain originality. Unfortunately i was subjected to the opposite.
After a very short time into the film i started to draw obvious comparisons to the Truman Show; although not exactly the same situation, the main character does begin to find that his life is being orchestrated by another person and seeks a way to find out his apparent destiny. Ferrell does this by speaking to a professor of literature played fantastically by Dustin Hoffman. He then finds the narrator to his life to be a writer played by Emma Thompson. So far a very basic and quick to establish scenario for the story.
Now this is where the film follows the well trodden track of clichés and predictive plot. Stop me if you have heard this before.. a boring character who suddenly becomes inspired to be a more interesting person, apparently seizing the day after discovering love where he thought he had none (in this case a slowly warming female played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). The now evolving hero blossoms into this glowing hero of a man, inspiring us, the viewer, to look into our own lives and draw an uplifting sense of optimism that we too could better ourselves and get more from life! PLEASE! Don't treat us like children. Don't patronise us with the same stale fell-good story. Don't ruin my opinions of Ferrell, Hoffman and Thompson who have all agreed to take part in this banality.
The next major problem i have with this film is how it knowingly pokes fun at itself. A writer with the inability to make a masterpiece she has become so well known for. A writers block which is causing her novel to drag on and on without closure. This is how the film makes me feel! Please end and release me from this nightmare. Then Hoffman references the fact that there exists only Seven basic plots and eliminates in front of our very eyes all but five of them explaining to Ferrell that his destiny can therefore only follow one of the remaining two. Is this really necessary, again please don't treat us like idiots! Then the narrator with writers block has issues with concluding Ferrell's destiny following one of these two plots. Does the film have to become so narrow that i have a 50% chance of knowing how the film ends?! I should have guessed by now anyway by the mushy feel good crap that is being spoon fed to me and now half way through the film i am angry that i have sat this far through it. I am now to be dragged reluctantly to the anti-climatic ending which leaves me with a "oh no - please don't let this pathetic moral of an ending be the closing of what is a wasted opportunity of a film idea!"
It saddens me to realise that yes, there are only seven basic plots that a work of fiction can take and yes, this film, like the life of Ferrell's character, can only follow one of these seven paths but do i need this excuse to be forced upon me to accept that this film may not live up to my expectations. I have seen many films which have been subjected to the same restrictions in plot direction but they have left me with good memories and not an bitter aftertaste. Unfortunately Stranger than Fiction is one of the nastiest aftertastes i have had the misfortune to experience.