Stranger Than Fiction

Director: Marc Forster

In Marc Forster’s exquisitely crafted comedic drama, Will Ferrell turns in his best performance so far as IRS auditor Harold Crick. As we meet Harold, we witness his seemingly mundane existence filled with obsessive compulsive numerical preoccupation that is soon altered by his odd encounters with two very different women—the politically rebellious but sweet natured tax dodging baker Maggie Gyllenhaal and more curiously, the voice of a narrator and author played by Emma Thompson who is writing a book she assumes is fiction when in reality, the audience along with Harold realize that somehow she’s managing to pull the strings of his very life. When Harold overhears her proclamation that his eventual death will close the “book,” he undergoes a soul-searching journey trying to unravel just who the author is by first meeting with mental health professionals Tom Hulce and Linda Hunt until finally seeking out the help of a warm but eccentric literature professor played by Dustin Hoffman. In addition, this new element of doom adds an existential air to his plight as Harold takes a step back from his work to reevaluate the way he’s been living his life, which thus far has primarily consisted of counting toothbrush strokes and tying his ties in a way of ultimate efficiency in order to save time that he’s since learned he may not have. In addition to Zach Helm’s highly original National Board of Review award-winning screenplay that will immediately strike a chord with fans of The Truman Show and Adaptation, Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction is one of the most visually imaginative releases of last year, which is apparent from the get-go with an initial bravura sequence that zooms in from the outer realm of space all the way inside Harold Crick’s apartment (in a way that recalls the amazing opening of Kieslowski’s Red and the famous segue from the dawn of man into space in Kubrick’s 2001). Utilizing the geniuses from MK12 Studios, Forster's film is bursting at the seams with wild graphics that help bring viewers inside Harold's number obsessed world in a method of onscreen additions reminiscent of David Fincher’s brief IKEA scene from Fight Club. Film lovers will want to go behind the scenes of the DVD at once to check out the features including a short MK12 GUI piece that helps clarify the inventive graphics we may have missed the first time around, while dazzled by the overly involving layers of information Forster admirably displays for an audience whose intelligence he obviously respects. Aside from the deft portrayal by Golden Globe nominee Will Ferrell who actually wore an earpiece during filming in order to hear Thompson’s narration and react accordingly, the entire cast (especially Gyllenhaal, Hoffman, Thompson and Queen Latifah) is simply wonderful. Enhanced by a clever selection of songs, this bright, fun, and highly entertaining film raises some valid existential questions regarding whether or not people have been sleepwalking through their lives without passion, living only for their work, and of course the eternal creative question (usually attributed to the filmmaking career of Francois Truffaut) of whether or not we’re living in a society where art is more important than life. Book lovers and those who simply enjoy something a bit different in their film viewing will want to be sure to track it down as it’s one that I knew instantly was worthy of not only a second viewing but a permanent place in my DVD library.

Songs Featured in Stranger Than Fiction

“The Way We Get By” by Spoon


“The Book I Write” by Spoon


“That’s Entertainment” by The Jam


“I Turn My Camera On” by Spoon


“My Mathematical Mind” by Spoon


“Bottles & Bones (Shade and Sympathy)” by Califone


“Vittorio E.” by Spoon


“La Petite Fille De La Mer” by Vangelis


“Love You” by The Free Design


“Death or Glory” by The Clash


“Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric


“Going Missing” by Maximo Park


“Dubbing in the Back Seat” by The Upsetters


“Mind Your Own Business” by Delta 5


“Democracy” by Adolescents


“On The Nature of Daylight” by Max Richter


“Horizon Variations” by Max Richter


“In Church” by M83