Stranger Than Fiction
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes
Directed by: Marc Forster
Starring:
Will Ferrell - Harold Crick
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Ana Pascal
Dustin Hoffman - Professor Jules Hilbert
Emma Thompson - Karen Eiffel
Queen Latifah - Penny Escher
Stranger Than Fiction would be worth watching for its concept alone: a man hears an omniscient voice narrating his life. The acting and the direction almost seems secondary to the pitch. But in the end, the concept falls behind the solid performances of its cast and the imaginative visuals of its director.
The film has a wonderful opening. Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) brushes his teeth and a counter appears on the screen to go along with the dry, matter-of-fact tone of the narrator, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). Both the numbers and the narration follow Harold as he catches the bus, does calculations in his head, and fills out forms at his dreary job as an IRS auditor. Director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) grabs us from the beginning and sets the film as offbeat, witty, and just a pinch of melancholy.
Once Harold begins to hear the narration, it both advises him and trivializes him. But once it terrifies him by letting him know that he will die soon, it pushes him not only to seek guidance from a literary professor (Dustin Hoffman) but to better his life, most notably by starting a romantic relationship with Ana, a free-spirit baker he’s auditing (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
What’s strange about Stranger Than Fiction is that as the film progresses, it takes its most unique feature, the interaction between narrator and main character, and puts it aside to focus on the plot and character interactions. And without that special piece, the film becomes a “Live Your Life Like You Were Dying” motivational-movie we’ve seen hundreds of times before. Personally, I don’t find the “Imminent Death” approach to life particularly inspiring. For one, it’s morbid and for two, it’s unrealistic. If we all lived like we would die tomorrow, we’d all be shooting heroin.
Stranger Than Fiction only manages to stay one step ahead of this empty-headed Hallmark-movie genre through the earnest performances of its cast and the smart direction of Forster. While Ferrell isn’t good enough to earn the Oscar nomination some people are buzzing about, it’s certainly the kind of performance that demonstrates his readiness material more difficult than Old School 2.
Thompson is the one who deserves the Oscar nomination. A lesser actress might make the reclusive Eiffel nothing but a series of quirks and forced eccentricities, but Thompson makes her idiosyncrasies show the character’s humanity trying to break through the passionless exterior of a writer who no longer understands humanity and tragedy. This can be especially problematic if all your books focus on human tragedy.
The rest of the cast turns in solid work. Hoffman’s Professor Hilbert is perfectly suited between cold intellectual and lovable teacher. Gyllenhaal has great chemistry with Ferrell and their romance feels real and not just the product of lead male + lead female = love. Queen Latifah has the thankless task of being Eiffel’s sounding board, but it’s a necessary sacrifice to make the audience better understand Eiffel’s writer’s block.
I wish I knew why the narration fades away from the film. Perhaps it’s illustrative of the writing block. Perhaps it just interferes with the flow of the dialogue. Whatever the reason, the omission of the omniscient restrains Fiction to being a witty and charming night at the movies but not the quotable classic hinted at by the whimsical introduction.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
10.26.06