Stranger than Fiction

Stranger than Fiction (2006) is firstly the best work Marc Forster has done behind the camera (he of Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball fame, both films which adequately though never articulately express their ideas). This here is a film that celebrates verbal intelligence and wit, and loves to take its time understanding character dynamics, freely roaming when it must in order to better facilitate the viewer's investment in the story and everything that it entails. As such, when the film must get cloying, it itself recognizes that it loses much of its emotional power, but acquiesces in order to become something more humane. I like that acknowledgement. But this film lies more in the hands of the writing than the directing.

Writer Zach Helm has fashioned a fascinating conceit to have lead character Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), an IRS auditor, be forced to listen to a narrator (Emma Thompson) give eloquence and meaning to his daily action. However, the narrator is more than an omniscient presence, since Harold soon realizes that he is a creation of some writer, and that she plans to kill him off to arrive at the perfect ironic ending. Meanwhile, the animosity local baker Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) harbors toward him is slowly unfolding to reveal a possible romance, so clearly Harold doesn't desire death anytime soon.

All the characters have plenty of opportunity to shine and there are no true one-note characters here that matter. And come on, the guitar bit into the kiss is one of the sexiest things that's been in cinema all year. Largely, this is a film that celebrates actual ingenuity in its characters, and while that reduces the level of uproarious laughs, the laughs here come from somewhere more honest and within the characters.

At this point, a second viewing (which it will be given) could bump the film to a 9 as an exemplary model of how to fashion a comedy that exudes charm, tenderness, and an understanding for the human character. Nonetheless, it is powerfully alive and generously humorous, and contains some thought-provoking questions about cynicism versus optimism, and what makes life worth living.

Stranger than Fiction: 8.5/10