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November 26, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction

Amanda and I have been looking forward to Stranger Than Fiction since we first saw teasers for it last summer. While I found Will Ferrell tremendously annoying the few times I saw him on Saturday Night Live, everything I've seen him in since then (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, The Producers, Wedding Crashers, Zoolander) have shown him to be a very entertaining actor. Throw in Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah and I was sold on the film without knowing anything else about it. Besides, it looked like a pretty good comedy based on the teaser.

The film is about a man named Harold Crick (Farrell), a IRS agent who suddenly begins hearing a voice in his head. The voice speaking to him, but instead, in Crick's words, is speaking "About me. Accurately...and with a better vocabulary." Unless you avoid movies and TV like the plague, you've doubtless seen the scene where Harold is standing at the bus station when the voice intones "Little did he know that events had been set in motion that would lead to his imminent death." To which poor Harold can only stare up at the sky and ask "What? Why?" Dr. Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) enters here as a literary professor who agrees to help Harold determine what he can about the story he is apparently in. And, naturally, Harold is eventually able to track down Kay Eiffel (Thompson), the writer who is penning the story of his life and imminent death.

All of that sounds pretty funny, and it is, but "Stranger Than Fiction" is a lot more than just a comedy. The film instead asks some questions about life and death and meaning and does it all pretty well. Some of it is somewhat cliche, as when Hoffman tells Crick to live the life he wants to live when it appears clear that he has no control over his fate, but the film's climax and denouement are superbly done, placing Crick, Eiffel, Hilbert and Eiffel's assistant Penny Escher (Latifah) in a situation that is at once wholly bizarre and yet remarkably touching and thought-provoking, although I can't get into the details without spoiling the film. Suffice to say, "Fiction" will give you some good laughs, but it will do more than just tickle your funny bone.

The cast is stellar, as should be expected from the actors involved. Thompson is pitch-perfect as writer's block-afflicted Kay Eiffel, who suddenly finds herself with a power no sane person would want. Hoffman is entertaining and solid as Hilbert, providing an interesting but necessary perspective to the situation. Maggie Gyllenhaal is excellent as Ana Pascal, target of one of Crick's audits, and Queen Latifah is wonderful as the stolid and caring assistant to Eiffel whose job is only to find a way to spur Eiffel to complete her novel. And Will Ferrell is marvelous as Crick, a man who receives an opportunity we all might envy.

Other than acting Oscars (probably for Thompson), don't expect to see this film in many critical collections, but it is certainly the best film I've seen this year.

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