“Stranger Than Fiction”
Director Marc Forster
Columbia Pictures
Harold Crick, the main character in “Stranger than
Fiction,” is a very unremarkable man. He lives in an
unremarkable home with unremarkable furniture and holds an
unremarkable job. He has an unremarkable life.
And, unfortunately for him, Harold Crick is also the subject of
a rather unremarkable movie.
In an age where one is hard-pressed to find a truly fresh and
original screenplay, “Stranger than Fiction” opens on a
high note. After that, it seems there is no place for the film to
go but down.
In the film, Harold (played by goofy comedian Will Ferrell)
suddenly begins to hear a voice in his head, narrating and
predicting his every move and thought as he goes meticulously
through his routine day.
At first it is an oddity, a minor inconvenience, until one
morning the narrator speaks of his “imminent death” and
Harold is propelled into doubt, dismay and self-discovery. He
eventually finds the source of this distinct voice to be that of
famed yet loopy writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson, “Love
Actually”) and as soon as the true form of her once-fictional
character is discovered, the question looms: to kill or not to
kill.
The film’s gimmick is a good one, but it is a much
different story in actual execution. The entire second half
examines the possible onset of our hero’s sudden death
““ leading to a search for the meaning of life better left to
the Hallmark Channel, rather than a Will Ferrell film.
On his quest, Harold falls for a woman named Ana, played by
Maggie Gyllenhaal (“World Trade Center,” “Happy
Endings”), and the lack of chemistry between the two makes it
difficult to take pleasure in Harold’s long-awaited
happiness.
In an all-star cast, Gyllenhaal is great, but Thompson steals
the show with her primarily voice-over role. Ferrell adapts well
from the frat humor for which he is famous, but there is still
something left to be desired both in his character and his
performance.
In order to find the woman behind the voice inside his head,
Harold is constantly asked if his story is a comedy or a tragedy;
it seems someone should have asked the same question behind the
camera as well.
E-mail Stanhope at kstanhope@media.ucla.edu.