November 12, 2006
Stranger Than Fiction
The smartest film to come out of the studio system in quite some time.
Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman
Rating: 8/10
Directed By: Marc Forster
Runtime: 113 minutes
Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman
Rating: 8/10
Directed By: Marc Forster
Runtime: 113 minutes
When I first heard that Will Ferrell was going to make an attempt at legitimacy ala Jim Carrey, I was a bit concerned. Unlike Carrey, who could merely dial down his manic comedic persona, Ferrell’s comedy was born out of his straight faced commitment to the zany characters that he’s played. For that reason, it is almost impossible to take him seriously when he attempts to be serious and in the early moments of Stranger Than Fiction, I found myself stifling a chuckle on more than one occasion when there was nothing comedic actually taking place on screen. But over time, a strange thing happened and I began to see Ferrell more as the straight-laced character he plays in the film and not the oddball characters he’s so easily manifested in movies like Talladega Nights or Anchorman. While not necessarily award worthy, it is still a wonderfully understated performance that announces Ferrell as a legitimately talented dramatic actor. And it’s a very good thing that Ferrell’s performance works as well as it does because the script for Stranger Than Fiction by newcomer Zach Helm is deserving of the best possible cast.
The film centers around the life of a boring IRS agent named Harold Crick (Ferrell). He lives an incredibly restricted life that seems to center around his love of numbers. He counts brush strokes and even calculates the percentage of soap in a dispenser. With such a boring, structured life, it’s a bit jarring to Harold when one morning he begins to hear his day to day routines in the form of a female narrator. The narrator in question is Kay Eiffel, a respected author who hasn’t published a new novel in a number of years and, if her writer’s block holds, might not ever again. The problem is that she’s not sure how to kill off her main character which proves to be both a blessing and a curse for Harold as he now has a limited amount of time to locate the reclusive author but still has to come to terms with his own mortality. The journey that follows includes a burned out professor of literature (Hoffman) and a headstrong baker (Gyllenhaal).
With its literary allusions, Stranger Than Fiction proves to be far more intelligent than your average studio comedy. The scenes between Ferrell and Hoffman where they attempt to determine how Ferrell’s life will ultimately play out are both clever and funny as are the exchanges between Thompson and her newly hired assistant (Queen Latifah). If there is any complaint about the film, it’s that the film is unwilling to commit to the high-concept literary approach and, instead, spends a good portion of the film’s running time focused on the relationship between Ferrell and Gyllenhaal. The two actors are incredibly likable and do possess a certain chemistry but their scenes together come dangerously close to pushing the film into rom-com territory. The scenes between the two are somewhat entertaining but pale in comparison to the rest of the movie.
As stated earlier, Ferrell is quite good in the film but the remainder of the cast is even better. Hoffman is great in a role that is substantially better than his over the top turn in Meet The Fockers. He delivers every line almost as an aside and garners big laughs from the simplest piece of dialogue. As good as Hoffman is, though, the real standout is Thompson who takes a stock character, the writer block afflicted author, and turns it into something entirely new and different. Everything about her performance is fascinating from her odd mannerisms to her drastic emotional swings. It’s one of the most fascinating portrayals of the year, one that should find itself nominated when the Academy Awards nominations are announced next year.
The film centers around the life of a boring IRS agent named Harold Crick (Ferrell). He lives an incredibly restricted life that seems to center around his love of numbers. He counts brush strokes and even calculates the percentage of soap in a dispenser. With such a boring, structured life, it’s a bit jarring to Harold when one morning he begins to hear his day to day routines in the form of a female narrator. The narrator in question is Kay Eiffel, a respected author who hasn’t published a new novel in a number of years and, if her writer’s block holds, might not ever again. The problem is that she’s not sure how to kill off her main character which proves to be both a blessing and a curse for Harold as he now has a limited amount of time to locate the reclusive author but still has to come to terms with his own mortality. The journey that follows includes a burned out professor of literature (Hoffman) and a headstrong baker (Gyllenhaal).
With its literary allusions, Stranger Than Fiction proves to be far more intelligent than your average studio comedy. The scenes between Ferrell and Hoffman where they attempt to determine how Ferrell’s life will ultimately play out are both clever and funny as are the exchanges between Thompson and her newly hired assistant (Queen Latifah). If there is any complaint about the film, it’s that the film is unwilling to commit to the high-concept literary approach and, instead, spends a good portion of the film’s running time focused on the relationship between Ferrell and Gyllenhaal. The two actors are incredibly likable and do possess a certain chemistry but their scenes together come dangerously close to pushing the film into rom-com territory. The scenes between the two are somewhat entertaining but pale in comparison to the rest of the movie.
As stated earlier, Ferrell is quite good in the film but the remainder of the cast is even better. Hoffman is great in a role that is substantially better than his over the top turn in Meet The Fockers. He delivers every line almost as an aside and garners big laughs from the simplest piece of dialogue. As good as Hoffman is, though, the real standout is Thompson who takes a stock character, the writer block afflicted author, and turns it into something entirely new and different. Everything about her performance is fascinating from her odd mannerisms to her drastic emotional swings. It’s one of the most fascinating portrayals of the year, one that should find itself nominated when the Academy Awards nominations are announced next year.