Entertaining and thought-provoking

Rating: 8/10 (24 September 2011)

A lonely tax officer, Harold Crick, starts hearing a female voice that tells in a literary way what he is thinking and going to do. Trying to give himself a rational explanation, he visits a psychiatrist and then a professor in Literature What is happening to him and who is writing, literally, his life? Stranger than fiction is a modern fable about predestination and free will, about life as a our personal creation, and a reflection on the process of artistic creation. It is a retake a la reverse on Pirandello's "Six characters in search of an author", but using just one character. The film is directed by Swiss golden boy Marc Foster and written by the screenwriter and film director Zach Helm.
The movie has a terrific script and dialogs, characters very well drawn, and great acting. Will Ferrell will surprise you as Harold; we are used to his crazy over-the-top performances, but here he offers a very controlled and sensitive performance and completely transforms himself into Harold. The always believable Maggie Gyllenhaal is perfect as the lawyer turned into anarchist baker Ana Pascal. Emma Thompson is great as the neurotic insecure and perfectionist writer Karen Eiffel. Dustin Hoffman is also terrific as Professor of Literature Jules Hilber, who intrigued by Harold turns into a Literary detective and Harold's counselor. Queen Latifah is correct as Eiffel's PA Penny Escher; I found her character a bit unnecessary, but she does plays well what she is asked for.
The movie is not only entertaining, but it is embedded with multiple ethical dilemmas and philosophical questions, that turn the mystery and the romance into something else. Some of the questions that came to my mind were: If your life was written like in a novel, and therefore you knew that you were predestined, would you still try to fight this? And if you did, would that make your life better and more meaningful? If it was in your hand, what would you prefer, dying young but having a memorable death or dying old but nobody knowing that you ever existed? Would knowing that your death is poetic, give more meaning to it? Would you rather know when you are going die or how? The look of the movie, is very clean, minimalist and stylish. The superimposing graphics and vectorial images help to make clear to the viewer what is happening in Harold's head and the sort of analytical and mathematical mind and approach to reality he has. They are terrific, very stylish, explicative and not invasive at all, just at the service of the story.
Don't be fooled, this is not the sort of gag comedy you watch to have a big laugh. Is a witty comedy, not a LOL one.
A terrific film, entertaining and thought-provoking.