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by Willie Waffle
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Stranger
Than Fiction
Each year, a movie comes
along that just hits me emotionally, and surprises me with its ability
to reach
down deep and make an impression I can’t shake.
This year, it’s Stranger
Than Fiction.
Will Ferrell stars as Harold
Crick – a mild mannered, shy, lonely IRS auditor who is a
whiz with numbers,
but afraid to live life. One
day, while
brushing his teeth, Harold starts to hear a voice narrating that life,
which
shocks him with its accuracy and “better
vocabulary.” Little
does he know, author Kay Eiffel (Emma
Thompson) has been writing a book about him, but she thinks Harold
Crick is a
character she created in her mind.
As
she struggles with writer’s block and tries to come up with
an ending for the
book, Harold turns to a literature professor, Dr. Jules Hilbert (Dustin
Hoffman), to help him find the narrator, and starts to fall for the
sexy baker,
Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is the subject of his latest audit.
Is it true love between the
auditor and the audited? Will
Harold be
able to find Eiffel before she ends the book, and his life?
Stranger
Than Fiction is the
best written movie of the year, and one of the best acted as well. With a unique plot, writer
Zach Helm takes a
page out of the Charlie Kauffman playbook to easily, and amazingly
shift from
tragedy to comedy to romance without upsetting the tone for the
audience, and
lulls you into loving Stranger
Than Fiction just before the big dramatic
climax
takes place, and makes you care more than you thought you could about
the main
character. He
tosses in some of the best
dialogue you will hear all year as Ana and Harold flirt, as well as
when Harold
depressingly analyzes his own situation. Then, Helm comes up with one
of the
most classic romantic gestures I have ever seen in a movie, a gesture
by Harold
towards Ana that perfectly sums up the quirkiness and tenderness
of Stranger
Than Fiction in one moment that every guy
will want to duplicate. Sure,
some of the movie may feel typical,
predictable and cliché, but it’s the writing and
the acting that sets it apart.
I know many people who have
told me they are tired of Ferrell’s shtick, but Stranger
Than Fiction gives him
a chance to show how different and excellent he can be.
He is great with a restrained, earnest
performance as a guy who isn’t the life of the party,
isn’t bombastic and loud,
but is just a shy guy trying to make it through life without getting
hurt. Ferrell
becomes this guy overcome by his own
nerves and fears, but also excels as the hero comes out of his shell
and makes
the audience rally for him, especially as he fights to stop his own
imminent
death. Ferrell
wonderfully transforms
Harold from a man afraid of his own shadow into a romantic lead in a
way that
can be inspirational, uplifting and touching.
Then, you get to see some
amazing acting from the supporting cast as well.
Thompson is fantastic as the neurotic, confused,
whacky, desperate author who seems unhinged at all times, and makes us
laugh
with her odd searches for inspiration and her writing method in general. Plus, Hoffman is great as
Harold’s advisor in
this search, and finds a perfect moment to make Stranger
Than Fiction special and
more interesting towards the end of the movie as he starts to realize
Harold’s
fate.
Finally, as he showed in
Finding
Neverland, director Marc Forster is a director who knows
how to deal
with fantastical subjects in a tender way.
The whole idea behind Stranger
Than Fiction is silly and could never
happen, but Forster draws you in by making you care for this underdog
character
who, finally, starts living a happy life and doesn’t want to
lose it.
Stranger
Than Fiction is
better than normal.
4 Waffles
(Out Of 4)
Stranger Than Fiction
is rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language
and nudity.
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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