Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Director:

Marc Forster

Writer (WGA):

Zach Helm (written by)

Release Date:

10 marraskuu 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Tagline:

Harold Crick isn't ready to go. Period.

Plot:

An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.

Plot Keywords:

Author | IRS Agent | Wristwatch | What If | Audit

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Will Ferrell	...	Harold Crick
William Dick	...	IRS Co-Worker #1
Guy Massey	...	IRS Co-Worker #2
Martha Espinoza	...	IRS Co-Worker #3
T.J. Jagodowski	...	IRS Co-Worker #4
Peter Grosz	...	IRS Co-Worker #5
Ricky Adams	...	Young Boy
Christian Stolte	...	Young Boy's Father
Denise Hughes	...	Kronecker Bus Driver
Peggy Roeder	...	Polish Woman
Tonray Ho	...	IRS Co-Worker #6
Tony Hale	...	Dave
Maggie Gyllenhaal	...	Ana Pascal
Danny Rhodes	...	Bakery Employee #1
Helen Young	...	Bakery Customer #1

Also Known As:

Killing Harold Crick (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

UK:12A | Ireland:12A | Finland:K-7 | Australia:M | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42015) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | Germany:6 | Portugal:M/12 | Brazil:10 | Argentina:Atp | Malaysia:U | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | South Korea:12 | Denmark:7 | Canada:G (British Columbia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Netherlands:6

Filming Locations:

25th Street & Christiana Avenue, South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures

Trivia:

The movie that Will and Maggie are watching the night before Harold's fateful encounter with the bus is Un homme et une femme (1966).

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: In the intro talking about Harold's life they say he counts the stroke of brushing his teeth each direction to 38 times. Then when the movie actually shows him brushing his teeth he only does it 24 times per up and down. In addition, when trying to provide his own narration, he appears to give a total of 72 (not 76).

Quotes:

Doctor Mercator: You'll be all right. You'll just have a shard of wristwatch embedded in your arm for the rest of your life.

Movie Connections:

Features Le peuple migrateur (2001)

Soundtrack:

The One You Always Wanted

Strangely Addicting

With his unassuming eyes and sheepish, "awe shucks!" demeanor, Will Ferrell is quite simply the guy you root for—the eternal boy trapped in a gangly 6'3" frame. Just a single look can make you giggle and smile so effortlessly that you're often unaware that you're actually doing it. It is with this notion that Stranger than Fiction—Ferrell's first major foray into a theatrical world outside the realm of in-your-face frat boy silliness—just makes sense. By surrounding Ferrell's charisma with a subdued, darkly comic script and a talented supporting cast, we get a film that is both fresh and heartfelt.

Directed by Marc Forster and penned by Zach Helm, Stranger than Fiction is an odd mix-mash, combining a standard comedy with existentialist ideas. Number crunching IRS agent and genuine loser, Harold Crick (Ferrell) one day wakes up to find his life being narrated word for word by burnt out writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). Odd thing is, Eiffel is writing an actual book where Crick just happens to be the main character. To make matters worse, she plans on killing him off as soon as she can make it through a particularly arduous stretch of writer's block.

Originality is one thing that is absent from a majority of contemporary Hollywood pictures, so Fiction immediately gets points for simply trying something different. I suppose it's icing on the cake that the film is genuinely good. Crick, knowing that is death is imminent, begins to break out of his cloistered shell and to experience the fruits of his life. And, in the process he forms a bond with a tax breaking baker (Gyllenhal) and seeks advice from a literature professor, played by a particularly charming Dustin Hoffman

However, even though it is well intentioned, the execution isn't flawless. The romance that develops between Gyllenhal's outcast baker and Ferrell's strait-laced Crick doesn't feel entirely organic. We admire the relationship and smile at its sugar coated sweetness, but we don't necessarily believe their connection. It may taste good, but it doesn't exactly wash down smoothly. Neither, does the film's over reliance on reinforcing generic, "Carpe Diem" philosophies. Towards the second act, things do get sappy. Luckily, by the conclusion, the plot has bounced back to a wonderful limbo of both oddly comic and genuinely heartwarming moments.

For all its flaws, Stranger than Fiction, works. Like a good novel, Forster has fashioned something that is strange, stylistic, and unexpectedly inspiring. And, despite the chinks in its existentialist armor, that's surely something worth writing home about.