Reviews Jun 26 2008 @ 04:38 pm
REVIEW: Stranger than Fiction
Directed By: Marc Forster
Written By: Zach Helm
Starring: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity
There’s one aspect of Marc Forster’s Stranger than Fiction that I can’t help but love: the fact that if you criticize it, it criticizes you back. It’s not “critic proof” in the traditional sense—arthouse-type fare like this stands or falls on the reactions of critics (though Will Ferrell’s presence may have helped)—but it’s impossible to question any of it without becoming one of the cynical, life-hating schlubs that it rakes over the coals. And, to make things better, it comes off as completely harmless and innocent even as it does this.
Stranger than Fiction is the sort of film that Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich) would have written, if he ever took a break from obsessing over how awesomely deep he was. It’s the same sort of meta-meta-meta-film, but without all the pretensions of importance. Will Ferrell (taking a serious turn—call it his Truman Show, if you must) plays Harold Crick, a bored, lonely IRS agent, who begins to hear a voice one day. It’s not a sinister voice, and it’s not addressing him or even speaking for him. It’s just…“narrating” (as he bemusedly puts it). Also, it’s never wrong about anything—and it’s saying that he’s going to die. After doing some research, Harold discovers that, somehow, he’s become the main character in a novel being written by Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson)—a novelist known for killing off her main characters.
Fundamentally, this is the story of a man reclaiming his life—in every possible sense. Ferrell shows here that he’s an astounding actor—transitioning believably from a character whose only friends are numbers and his own ennui to one who’s rediscovered himself and the world. I’m not usually a huge fan of the guy—his spastic antics amount to little more than a poor man’s Jim Carrey in my book (and now I just wait for the death threats from his faithful disciples)—but I was nothing short of amazed by his performance here. He’s taken all his spastic energy and concentrated it into a repressed loneliness. Essentially, he’s become a main character that you hardly notice—a turn that’s both brilliant and appropriate.
It’s also fortuitous, since they’ve paired him with an excellent supporting cast. I don’t think that Emma Thompson is capable of putting in a bad performance (she’s brightened everything from Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare adaptations to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to Disney’s notorious flop Treasure Planet), and here they’ve paired her with Queen Latifah (who plays her publisher-mandated assistant). The two have fantastic chemistry, and it makes for some great moments—both comedic and serious. Maggie Gyllenhaal is also great as Harold’s love interest—an anti-establishment hippie who’s being audited—and Dustin Hoffman is very funny as an English literature professor who insists that Harold has to die to protect the brilliance of Eiffel’s work.
Stranger than Fiction can only be described as an arthouse film that explicitly rejects art for art’s sake—and is all the more audacious because of it. In order to save his own life, Harold has to overcome all manner of things, not the least of which are stodgy, cynical schools of aesthetics. Though I may have implied as much, I’m not afraid to criticize this film—I’m just unable to. It’s completely disarming. It’s easily one of the most unapologetically life-affirming films I’ve ever seen, functioning like a big middle finger pointed in the collective face of critics who would have it be otherwise. It’s moving, thought-provoking, and above all, uplifting.
If only its critics could see past that and realize that it’s also a good movie.
on Jun 26 2008 @ 5:01 pm 1. Cinexcellence said …
Need more Hoffman.
on Jun 27 2008 @ 7:36 am 2. Rachel said …
After seeing this, I had high hopes Ferrell might try to get away from his mediocre past and turn in more brilliantly subtle performances such as this one. My dreams were shattered when his next recycled flick came out, but at least we have “Stranger than Fiction” to realize what talent is being waste on garbage. But I guess that makes it all the more sad too.
on Jun 27 2008 @ 9:52 am 3. Fletch said …
You’re doing a great service, Luke. Though I can’t agree on the 5-star rating, STF was one of my favorites of 2006, and is criminally written off as “Kauffman-lite” (even though part of me agrees with that sentiment). I think people thought it looked just too familiar (down to Hoffman’s almost-reprise of his Huckabees role) and ignored it for the most part.
Oh, and don’t forget Buster’s in it (for Arrested Development fans).
on Jun 27 2008 @ 11:52 am 4. redison said …
Stranger Than Fiction is an awesome movie. I’d give it 5 stars, except I feel Queen Latifa was a bit wasted. She either shouldn’t have been in the movie, or should have been given more purpose for being in it. She and Thompson may have chemistry, but she sort of just wanes off into thin air by the end, shortly after becoming an awkward presence. But other than that, it’s excellent! One of my faves.
on Jun 27 2008 @ 1:34 pm 5. Evan Derrick said …
Ferrell is comedic gold in Elf, and I will die on that hill.
Otherwise, couldn’t agree more. Wonderful little film that was hurt because most people expected the typical Ferrell comedy and it was anything but.
on Jun 29 2008 @ 9:13 pm 6. Rick Olson said …
Fine review, Luke. I liked Ferrells extreme underplaying which, as you note, is perfect for the film. It’s not quite as high-concept as a Kaufmann film which is, imho, a good thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with Kaufmann films …
I guess I never thought about it as art-house fare, perhaps because the concept is high (a guy hears the voice of the novelist writing his life) and it has Will Farrell. I don’t think it has any pretensions to art-housiness, exactly, it’s just a nice little film that I very much enjoyed. It is what it is.
on Jun 29 2008 @ 9:15 pm 7. Rick Olson said …
oops … I misspelled “Kaufman.” silly me.
on Jun 30 2008 @ 10:04 am 8. Luke Harrington said …
Rachel: If you’re looking for more “serious” Ferrell, you might check out Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda (I have a review of that one on MZ as well). It’s not anywhere near as good as this flick, but it’s not bad.
Fletch: Yay, Arrested Development! That’s quality stuff. Also, doesn’t Hoffman always play the same role? Cf. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (coincidentally written and directed by Zach Helm, STF’s screenwriter).
Redison: Now that you mention it, they could have done a bit more with Latifah. But this one gets five stars because I loved it and would recommend it to pretty much everyone…not because I consider it completely perfect.
Evan: I’m mounting an assault on that hill. Defend yourself! (Sorry, just watched Secondhand Lions last week.)
Rick: I’ll agree with “It is what it is.” I guess I call it arthouse because it’s a (comparatively) heady drama that aims for those outside of the 18-35 males demographic. In smaller cities, it probably played in arthouses.
I also agree with you on Kaufman: his films, far too often, veer off on tangents with no other purpose than to prove that the movie is smarter than you. This one knows where to quit: It gives you the situation, and then lets the characters interact with it. It makes for better cinema. (Now I just sit back and wait to be accused of anti-intellectualism.) 
on Jul 01 2008 @ 7:29 pm 9. Craig Kennedy said …
Wow, a happy group of people who loved Stranger than Fiction as much as I did? Where have all you people been?
I went into this movie in a classic Craig Kennedy bad mood and came out of it happier than I’d been in days. I was shocked to read how much some people disliked it.
I think there were two groups of people…well three, but we’re the third group…one group expected a typical Will Ferrell comedy and another group (led by Jeff Wells) who mistook this for some kind of Oscar picture. In fact it wasn’t either one of those things. It was a simple, charming little romantic comedy that managed not to irritate in any of the ways romantic comedies usually irritate.
It was cute without being cloying. He brings her ‘flours’. Come on! What the hell, is everyone dead inside?
on Jul 02 2008 @ 11:11 am 10. The Great Cretaceous Bob said …
Holy crap this is unbelievable.
Someone on this earth VOLUNTARILY gave Stranger than Fiction 5 stars.
Wow.
I might as well go shoot myself in the face, if a movie with such a cobbled together amateur screenplay is actually regarded as good by any part of the human race.
on Jul 02 2008 @ 11:44 am 11. Luke Harrington said …
Mr. Cretaceous Guy:
Repeat after me: “They’re just opinions. People have them. Not everyone will agree with me.”
Seriously, it was a movie about a writer who’s writing a novel about a real person she’s never met. How, exactly, can you expect this sort of screenplay to have a homogenous thrust? It’s weird because it’s supposed to be weird. (It’s called “the marriage of form and content.”)And incidentally, there’s a heckuva a lot more to a movie than the screenplay.
Oh, and before you shoot yourself in the face, please think about all you have to live for. Like riding Triceratops. Those things are awesome.
Craig:
Welcome brother, to the secret society of STF. Now who brought the chips?
on Jul 03 2008 @ 11:05 am 12. Craig Kennedy said …
I’m driving the Frito-Lay truck, friendo.
And seriously, Bob. There are plenty of movies out there worth shooting yourself in the face for, but Stranger than Fiction? Like it or not, at the very least, it’s harmless and easy to forget. It never killed any bunny rabbits or seized control of a third world country. It doesn’t cause cancer.
on Jul 03 2008 @ 11:15 am 13. Luke Harrington said …
Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla, on the other hand, has been linked to most forms of heart disease, brain tumors, and excessive sneezing.
Just for the record.
on Jan 05 2009 @ 7:52 pm 14. …yet made of stars said …
[...] January 5, 2009 Cross-posted at: MovieZeal [...]
on Jul 03 2009 @ 9:05 pm 15. Lovely by Surprise « Cinexcellence said …
[...] and first time director Kirt Gunn (also the writer) handles it delicately. It reminded me of Stranger Than Fiction and Adaptation, but only in plot. Kirt’s story is unique, fresh, and well worth [...]