STRANGER THAN FICTION
(contains spoilers)
This is the film about a sociopath, who counts brushstrokes brushing teeth, who keeps people to the same regimented schedule. The film is about their awakening, about their finding out they can be a better person than the one who is a slave to their own internal conditioning, even if it takes slightly supernatural circumstances to make it happen. And you have to say, Emma Thompson plays the role very well!
For this is her authors story as much as it is Will Ferrell’s story. Ostensibly a comedy, Stranger Than Fiction takes the old character in search of an author idea and turns it into a fresh film. Of course, horror writers like LP Hartley and Basil Copper (and err, me) used it as prelude to a fatal meeting. There is one death in the film, but here Zach Helm plays to the absurdity of the situation.
Will Ferrell’s main character is a safely boring IRS man, who finds out when he starts hearing Emma Thompson’s voice narrate his life story, that he might be the main character in a book currently being written. And when she announces his impending death, he naturally gets a bit freaked! With the help of English Lit professor Dustin Hoffman (who has both the most cringe inducing pieces of exposition and some of the best naturalist responses in the film, often in the same scene), Ferrell sets about tracking down his author, to try and live. Only her award winning formula is “kill ‘em all”.
In a well cast film (Will Ferrell is surprisingly good), Maggie Gyllenhaal (as a woman Ferrell is sent to audit but starts dating instead) and Queen Latifah (in a restrained but commanding smaller role as a publishers fixxer – I’d like one of those!) get to stand out too with fine performances. An underrated subplot to the film is Latifah’s character making Emma Thompson a better person – a better character, in fact – instead of the neurotic who visits A&E wards looking for dead people to inspire her writing. Admittedly, Gyllenhaal’s anarchist turn love interest flies a thin line between person and manic pixie dream girl, but there is enough of her own needs (non-Will Ferrrell needs) to steer slightly clear, and this seems part of the meta-text.
Does Harold Crick meet Ana Pascal and this causes the narration, or does he meet her because this is in the plot of the story? Characters may be aware of the fact but remain characters. Free will vs predestination is at the core of this film, with a strong Paradise Lost subtext: Emma Thompson’s author lives high up in a clean white house and offers second chances, Dustin Hoffman’s professor lives below, adores Thompson but is ignored, and tries to get Ferrell to accept his fate.
The film was a flop in 2006, despite a 3.5/4 review from the late Roger Ebert who called it an “uncommonly intelligent film about sweet worthy people”, as it released the same week as Happy Feet, the Santa Clause III and Casino Royale – as well as some other forgotten hits – and got lost in the shuffle. However, time has a habit of righting contemporary wrongs. It’s a Wonderful Life and Bringing Up Baby, despite being two of the greatest films of all time, were box office flops in their day, and it took time for their true worth to be discovered. With a fine cast, a witty script and interesting sympathetic characters, Stranger than Fiction is far better than the audiences of 2006 thought. It’s about fighting fate and accepting it, and love and life and the incremental moments in life being the most pivotal. Also, for a main character, Harold Crick ends up as a highly respected (though pained) hero, and gets to sleep with Maggie Gyllenhaal. As the wife wryly pointed out last night, there are worse fates in life…
(contains spoilers)
This is the film about a sociopath, who counts brushstrokes brushing teeth, who keeps people to the same regimented schedule. The film is about their awakening, about their finding out they can be a better person than the one who is a slave to their own internal conditioning, even if it takes slightly supernatural circumstances to make it happen. And you have to say, Emma Thompson plays the role very well!
For this is her authors story as much as it is Will Ferrell’s story. Ostensibly a comedy, Stranger Than Fiction takes the old character in search of an author idea and turns it into a fresh film. Of course, horror writers like LP Hartley and Basil Copper (and err, me) used it as prelude to a fatal meeting. There is one death in the film, but here Zach Helm plays to the absurdity of the situation.
Will Ferrell’s main character is a safely boring IRS man, who finds out when he starts hearing Emma Thompson’s voice narrate his life story, that he might be the main character in a book currently being written. And when she announces his impending death, he naturally gets a bit freaked! With the help of English Lit professor Dustin Hoffman (who has both the most cringe inducing pieces of exposition and some of the best naturalist responses in the film, often in the same scene), Ferrell sets about tracking down his author, to try and live. Only her award winning formula is “kill ‘em all”.
In a well cast film (Will Ferrell is surprisingly good), Maggie Gyllenhaal (as a woman Ferrell is sent to audit but starts dating instead) and Queen Latifah (in a restrained but commanding smaller role as a publishers fixxer – I’d like one of those!) get to stand out too with fine performances. An underrated subplot to the film is Latifah’s character making Emma Thompson a better person – a better character, in fact – instead of the neurotic who visits A&E wards looking for dead people to inspire her writing. Admittedly, Gyllenhaal’s anarchist turn love interest flies a thin line between person and manic pixie dream girl, but there is enough of her own needs (non-Will Ferrrell needs) to steer slightly clear, and this seems part of the meta-text.
Does Harold Crick meet Ana Pascal and this causes the narration, or does he meet her because this is in the plot of the story? Characters may be aware of the fact but remain characters. Free will vs predestination is at the core of this film, with a strong Paradise Lost subtext: Emma Thompson’s author lives high up in a clean white house and offers second chances, Dustin Hoffman’s professor lives below, adores Thompson but is ignored, and tries to get Ferrell to accept his fate.
The film was a flop in 2006, despite a 3.5/4 review from the late Roger Ebert who called it an “uncommonly intelligent film about sweet worthy people”, as it released the same week as Happy Feet, the Santa Clause III and Casino Royale – as well as some other forgotten hits – and got lost in the shuffle. However, time has a habit of righting contemporary wrongs. It’s a Wonderful Life and Bringing Up Baby, despite being two of the greatest films of all time, were box office flops in their day, and it took time for their true worth to be discovered. With a fine cast, a witty script and interesting sympathetic characters, Stranger than Fiction is far better than the audiences of 2006 thought. It’s about fighting fate and accepting it, and love and life and the incremental moments in life being the most pivotal. Also, for a main character, Harold Crick ends up as a highly respected (though pained) hero, and gets to sleep with Maggie Gyllenhaal. As the wife wryly pointed out last night, there are worse fates in life…
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