Just for the record.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.)

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.

Otherwise, couldn’t agree more. Wonderful little film that was hurt because most people expected the typical Ferrell comedy and it was anything but.

Oh, and don’t forget Buster’s in it (for Arrested Development fans).