Over-hyped, inconsistent and underwhelming

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2006)

Stranger than Fiction seemed so promising from the trailer. Could this writer be the new Charlie Kaufmann? Well, sadly the film answers this with a resounding "Not yet." A gimmicky and quirky plot (tax inspector starts hearing narration and turns out to be the hero of a novel being written as he lives his life) is sadly not consistently carried all the way through the film. All the best bits are in the trailer, and to be honest, so is about 50% of the plot. A lot of the rest feels forced and unnatural. The casting is mostly superb, except for Will Ferrel, who seems out-thesped wherever he goes. Maggie Gyllenhaal is good as usual, but her character is sadly completely unconvincing. Where Charlie Kaufman populates his world with odd characters all of whom have a basic truth and credibility in them, Maggie Gyllenhaal here plays a character whose single purpose is to be the love interest. Her motivations are unconvincing, her development unbelievable, her entire character a slightly upmarket version of a Bond girl. Dustin Hoffman does his quirky I Heart Huckabees shtick, and Emma Thompson convinces as quirky writer (with an underutilised Queen Latifah as enforced assistant).
Sadly, the film just doesn't work very well. There are hints of greatness and originality, but that's all they are. Bits of good writing (sometimes even poetic writing) between minutes of average writing. Glimpses of great performances between hours of Will Ferrel. One cannot help feeling that, with a more experienced writer (read: Charlie Kaufmann) and a better actor in the protagonist's role (read: Jim Carey), this film could have been fantastic. Sadly, the "could have been" drawer is firmly where the film belongs, managing to remain average between the rare glimpses of genius, and all the more disappointing for it.