Stranger than Fiction

Cast overview, first billed only:


Will Ferrell .... Harold Crick

Maggie Gyllenhaal .... Ana Pasca
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Dustin Hoffman .... Professor Jules Hilbert

Queen Latifah .... Penny Escher

Emma Thompson .... Karen Eiffel


The movie was playing in the smallest cinema at the multi-plex, that should have given me a clue. And there were only 6 other movie goers (on a Friday night!!!!) watching this film with us.

I am not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but I thought any film that had the Dust-man (Dustin Hoffman) had to have a touch of class to it. Unfortunately only Dustin's performance was excellent, especially with the coffee.

Will Ferrell was also okay in this movie. The role seemed to have been written for him but it didn't stretch his acting abilities (other reviewers disagree, but they are paid to write a review whereas here at The Reviewer, we do it to help the consumer made an educated judgment. Plus, we tell it like it is). I would like to see the range he could control. In this film, he seemed to be acting by numbers. There wasn't any spark, even when he decided he wanted to live.

Maggie Gyllenhaal (Ana Pascal) was under utilized and Emma Thompson was over the top but interesting. The love interest between Maggie and Will contained no chemistry and for a person who seemed to hate the IRS guy, she sure warmed to him quickly.

Let us not forget the comedy element. It was there but only a little. It sure as hell wasn't a laugh a minute. There were several slow parts, all of them Emma's part of the writer.

What's the movie about:

Well, I think you know unless you missed all the hype etc. but here it is in a nutshell:


[first lines]

Karen Eiffel:
[narrating] This is a story about a man named Harold Crick and his wristwatch.

Karen Eiffel is writing a book after a ten year absence. But she has writer's block (NB# this review personally doesn't believe in writer's block) and her publisher has sent an assistant (Queen Latifah) to help her along and meet the deadline.

She is writing a book about an IRS agent called Harold Crick. Unknown to her is that Harold Crick actually is a real person who happens to be an IRS agent.

Harold Crick leads a boring life but for him it is a life. He has a set routine that is controlled by his watch. When he starts to hear the author's voice in his head, he slowly starts to make slight changes in his life, including meeting the woman of his dreams.

Then one day when things are starting to go right for him, he hears the author say:

Karen Eiffel:
[narrating] Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death.



Harold Crick:
What? What? Hey! HELLOOO! What? Why? Why MY death? HELLO? Excuse me? WHEN?



Harold Crick turns to a renowned college professor, Jules Hilbert, for help and discovers there are two types of books Comedy and Tragedy. He doesn't know what part his life is and starts a notebook and marks down (via a tick mark) everything he does or says that fit into either category. He starts this when he meets a tattooed bakery, government hating, owner.

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And then the fun starts.

Movie rating: 62% = watchable and not a total waste of two hours.

Quotes pinched from IMDB.

They also got Emma's character name wrong. Oh well.

Sounds okay - so much out there though, especially atm with oscar films everywhere.
(Glad you like my percentage idea!)

The percentage idea is very good.
Don't mind me using it, do you?

No go ahead. I've put your link on myspace page and will try to redirect traffic...