Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Originally Reviewed 

Friday March 9, 2007

I'm not a real big fan of Will Ferrell, in fact on many occasions I have referred to his acting as an imitation of someone hyped up on crack. His spastic type of comedy doesn't take very long to grind on my nerves. But this time around Ferrell is in a more subdued and at sometimes serious role. Stranger Than Fiction is Ferrell's attempt at doing something a little more dramatic in a role that is quite comparable to that of Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.

Will Ferrell is Harold Crick an IRS auditor whose life is pretty routine and boring. Harold has confined his life into an unimaginable rut to the point that even brushing his teeth a certain number of times becomes pertinent. But Harold's boring life and manic ways are soon all about to change as he is going to begin to experience what freedom is like.

One day Harold awakens at his usual time and once again begins his daily routine, but something is different, everything Harold seems to do is narrated by a woman's voice! At first he believes he's going insane since he's the only person who seems to be able to hear her, but the voice knows too much and begins to really scare him when she states "little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death". With some outside help Harold begins to realize his life is being narrated, now the only solution to uncover is by whom and why.

Throughout the film Harold begins to loosen up and no longer be bound by his daily routine as he attempts to figure out what’s happening in his life in an attempt to put a stop to his foretold death. Through this whole ordeal Harold begins to experience and enjoy life for the first time, but unfortunately death isn't something very preventable even in Harold's situation.

Stranger Than Fiction is quite an enjoyable film, and surprisingly Will Ferrell gives quite a convincing performance in some of the more dramatic scenes in the film. I thought him playing an IRS auditor was quite comical as well. Being an accountant and working in a CPA office you get quite familiar with the IRS, and while their portrayal in the film might be quite humorous most of it is very true. For example auditors aren't allowed to accept anything, so if you offer them a glass of water they won't take it...seriously, now as for that huge room full of storage boxes with people's files... I'm not sure if that is real or not.

Overall the film was quite enjoyable, a little slow at times and a few things thrown at you that make absolutely no sense, but in the long run the film entertains. My biggest complaint is the tremendously huge deal the writer of the book makes about killing off Harold when she discovers he actually exists. She's stuck between killing someone off or writing a brilliant book, but it never seems to even cross her mind to simply change the main characters' name! But I guess there wouldn't be a film if that happened right? In the end, Will Ferrell was great, Dustin Hoffman was quite funny and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who've I've never been a big fan of, was a perfect fit for her character. 

8/10