Review: Stranger Than Fiction


Will Ferrell stars as ordinary fellow named Harold Crick, who works for the IRS, and also happens to have an inner monologue running through his head. Literally. In more than one sense of the term. Whilst Dustin Hoffman, as a literature professor tries to work out whether Harold’s story is a comedy or a tragedy (despite not believing a word of what Harold is telling him), Ferrell is getting frustrated with his every thought and action being described or commented upon. This inner monologue, voiced by Emma Thompson, is actually the troubled author of Harold’s life story, and unfortunately, Thompson has decided that in order for this story to work, poor Harold must die. Needless to say, Harold isn’t very happy about all this, especially since he has just struck up a tentative relationship with tattooed bakery shop owner Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is initially severely unimpressed at being audited by Harold on their first meeting (she’s a bit of an anarchist and possibly a little bit of a sadist). Queen Latifah is wasted as Thompson’s assistant, Linda Hunt plays a shrink who wants to medicate poor Harold ASAP.



2006 Marc Forster (the overrated and thematically problematic “Monster’s Ball”) oddity seems like Charlie Kaufman territory (it’s not a Kaufman piece), but if this isn’t quite the equal of “Being John Malkovich” or “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, it’s not too far behind. It appears to like its characters a lot more than say “Malkovich” or the overrated “Adaptation”, the latter of which I believe betrayed its characters for the sake of being quirky and self-reflexive.



Ferrell is excellent (both in the comedic and dramatic areas), Gyllenhaal (entirely radiant) and Hoffman are also terrific, and the film is both funny, sad, and very clever. Should definitely become a cult classic, alongside “Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine”. Scripted by Zach Helm (“Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”), it also has a little Douglas Adams to it, especially in regards to Harold’s inner monologue/author and some of the accompanying visuals, in amongst the Kaufman-esque weirdness.



Rating: B+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more