Stranger Than Fiction is the story of Harold Crick, an IRS auditor, played by Will Ferrell. While this film is a bit of a comedy, it’s not Will Ferrell’s standard fare. In fact, he plays this role fairly straight. In the movie he’s living a predictable life of his own choosing when suddenly he hears a voice, one no one else can hear, that begins to annoyingly narrate his life. That being challenging enough to bear, the always accurate narrative voice one day predicts his death which changes everything. The ‘voice’ is that of Karen Eiffel, played by Emma Thompson, who is currently writing a novel that is indeed telling the story of Harold Crick and having trouble figuring out how to kill him. A certain amount of this movie is about her character. Dustin Hoffman plays the role of literary advisor to Harold and Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the woman who makes him want something more in life.
Thought it was a little slow at times, I found this movie intriguing. Part of the time I was waiting for Will Ferrell to do some outrageously, comedic, stupid bit which amazingly didn’t happen though much of his more subtle funny stuff made it through. The other part had me wondering where it was all going as, over time, it seemed to become less and less of a comedy and more of a romantic drama. I’ve never been much of a fan of Will Ferrell and tend to pass on films he stars in but I’m moved to say I liked him in this. In fact it was such a surprise that I give it a 4 out of 5 marks. It’s one of very few films that I’ve sit through more than once.