Almost Great

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2007)

I loved the premise of this movie and the beautiful acting by Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal (could she get any sexier? I'm straight, but she makes me question) and Emma Thompson.
Aside a couple of forgivable skips in logic (ex: the academic "gobbledy-gook" that so easily convinces the Professor...'cause of course, he's a professor), I was really entranced by this movie which is perhaps why I was left unsatisfied by it's resolution. I liked the choice of ending in it's dilemma between "tragedy or comedy", (plot-wise), but I felt it forgot it's theme, or changed it at the end, which is weird. It seemed Promethean at first (destiny vs. free will) then to one of acceptance and finding the joy in life -- they're different.
You have a character who has spent his entire life sacrificing his individuality to society's expectations and therefore subjugating his will for a higher "order". Through this movie, we see Harold Crick take baby steps towards his own authentic individuality. I wanted a scene where this path to his own identity was fought for and ultimately achieved -- even for a moment. I wanted to see a character with no back-bone actually get one and say "no" (not just start to). And definitely a Promethean "Fuck you" to the Professor's pompous authority (putting Harold's matter-of-life-and-death script under his seat which Harold accepts); the same authority which later tells him he must unequivocally accept the written ending and die for the cause of poetry.
More importantly, I wanted to see a Promethean "NO" to the writer that is choosing the "best", "most meaningful" ending FOR HIM. I can swallow Harold's final acceptance of the writer's destiny for him if there was a fight for his identity first: a fight against being merely a cog in someone else's structure (whether it be the IRS, dentist rules or a writer's book). Harold doesn't like "ending" at first, but never fights it and so falls short of fulfilling his character growth throughout the movie. In the end, Kay Eiffel "the Gods" grants him amnesty from his fate -- our human never truly rose up and claimed a choice.