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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.

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