Majin Planet

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

This is by far the best comedy of 2006 and the same time maybe even the best story of the year or at least it ranks up there. Its times like this that I don’t fully lose faith in Hollywood because not only is this movie great, but it has feeling, it takes time to tell the story, it doesn’t try to be something its not and it doesn’t try to believe that it can be more then that. On top of that it stars Will Ferrell who is one of my least favorite actors. Don’t get me wrong, hes a good actor but just not someone I would see doing a movie like this. I was wrong on that one.

Stranger Than Fiction is just that strange and very much fiction. The basic set up for this movie is simple. Its about a wristwatch that has thoughts and feelings. The characters of the story are controlled by imaginary voices that tells them what to do. Which is just what a movie is, the actors follow the script no matter what it says. This movie plays on that and does it very, very well, but strangely this film has a lot to offer and its scriptwriter Zach Helm. Helm’s script is shaped in providing an interesting and imaginative insight into the troubled world of being a writer with a strange twist. Top it off with great acting and deftly handled by director Marc Forster.

The story is about a dull, single tax agent called Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) whose life is like an endless Groundhog day with everything timed and controlled down to the number of strokes of his toothbrush. Who out of the blue hears a mysterious voice narrating his entire life, a voice that seems to know his thoughts and feelings, as well as when and how he’ll die. This sends the character on a hunt to discover why hes going to die, which it turns out that the voice is that of an author (Emma Thompson) writing a book in which the agent is a character. Our main characters life is turned up side down as he tries to find out why hes going to die and what he can do to stop it. All of which is start to fall in love with a anarchist baker Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal) which adds more meaning to his life and more so to want to live. The movie also stars Dustin Hoffman, playing a very weird and funny literary theorist called Jules Hilibert. Jules suggests that he turn his story from a tragedy to a comedy and embark on a love story with Ana.

The ending of the movie sees Crick catching up with Eiffel as she is torn between finishing the book and the therefore finishing him off in reality or saving him and going against what she has done in every other book she has written. Ferrell’s performance is beautifully understated with none, or very few, of the eccentricities we have come to expect from him in the past. He is ably supported on his journeys by the subtly humorous Hoffman and the surprisingly funny Thompson who pulls off the suicidal writer role with aplomb and even manages to generate scenes of genuine warmth and emotion.

Overall this movie is a must see, its funny, its sad and getting to see Hoffman trade comedy blows with Ferrell was well worth it. This movie never ties to be more then that. Not once in this movie did I even wonder “why does he her her voice and how the hell is she controlling his life by writing it?” Never once does it cross your mind because the movie itself doesn’t need it and it’s so well done that you will love it. I recommend seeing it and you know the DVD release is going to be a good one. If you haven’t see Stranger Than Fiction yet you need to go see it right now.