Will Ferrell proves his worth as a real actor in Stranger than Fiction (on DVD since Feb. 27) in which he plays Harold Crick, a boring IRS agent whose life becomes meaningful when he realizes that he is the main character is somebody’s book.
Crick hears a narrator in his head who is narrating his own actions and thoughts, and at first thinks he’s crazy. He then consults Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), a literature professor who analyzes Crick’s narrator in style and word choice. Hoffman and Ferrell are brilliant together, with Hoffman being sardonically humorous and Ferrell using his talent in physical comedy through perfect facial expressions for his befuddled character.
Meanwhile the narrator and author, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is unaware that her character is human flesh and blood and is trying to figure out the best way for him to die at the end of the book. With her assistant (Queen Latifa), she goes out to “research” different deaths as a way of combating her writer’s block. The dark humor works and Thompson and Latifa play off each other well with intelligent dialogue written by Zach Helm.
Balancing things out is a cute, but predictable romance. Crick falls for the woman he is auditing, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The movie gets away with its predictability because it can blame in on the fiction writer, Kay Eiffel. It’s clever, and it works as long as you don’t think too hard about what the movie is all about. Go along for the ride. It attempts at depth with questions of mortality and the “meaning of life.” But this is no Ingmar Bergman (let alone Woody Allen), so don’t think this a substitute this for your philosophy reading. It’s a smart, funny comedy with a stellar cast and a lot of laughs.