Stranger Than Fiction, 2006
Directed by Marc Foster
Written by Zach Helm
Cast:
Will Ferrell ... Harold Crick
Emma Thompson ... Karen Eiffel
Queen Latifah ... Penny Escher
Tony Hale ... Dave
Maggie Gyllenhaal ... Ana Pascal
Tom Hulce ... Dr. Cayly
Linda Hunt ... Dr. Mittag-Leffler
Dustin Hoffman ... Professor Jules Hilbert
As some of you may already know, I have a bachelor's degree in English. I spent four full years reading literature, writing about it, critiquing it, finding ways to teach it, and generally immersing myself in the power of the written word. As a result of that experience, I'm a geek. I'm a big ol' bookwormy nerd who would rather sit in a coffee shop on a Friday night and read some
Sherman Alexie or Kurt Vonnegut or Dave Eggers than talk to people in a bar or watch TV. Though movies and literature often share common themes, intents, audiences, and purposes, it is rare that the two modes overlap each other, and it is even more rare that the two show off the best traits in each other. Stranger Than Fiction, a movie about a (supposed) fiction writer who narrates the life and impending death of Harold Crick, is unique in its stunning quality as a film that showcases the very real power of literature.
Stranger Than Fiction is the story of Harold Crick (Ferrell) and his mundane life--before he realizes that his mundane life is in fact being narrated by a novelist named Karen Eiffel (Thompson). Then we watch him become an active player in his life as he searches for this mysterious narrator voice, consults a literature professor (Hoffman--perfect casting, and oh my god, a not-very-absent-minded literature professor!) for a "diagnosis" of his condition, and courts the anarchist Ana (Gyllenhaal), the complement to his stereotypical IRS-agent persona.
Beyond the plot, which is beautifully scripted and whose characters are perfectly cast (if it's possible, I adore these actors now more than I did before this movie), this movie is a display of the power that writers have to influence the world on a very literal level. And not only that, but Stranger Than Fiction shows a writer--a person of major influence in this fictional world--taking responsibility for her actions, even going so far as to take a "literary hit" in her novel's plot for the sake of her main character. This is another rarity in society at large, another rarity in a rare movie. I cried at the end of this movie (I hid it from my co-viewers because I am apparently a weak movie-goer and often the subject of mockery), but I don't shelve this with the "manipulative media" I have come to loathe: this movie wasn't intent on making me feel any one particular emotion. STF made me think, made me feel, and let me explore those thoughts and feelings. And I was entertained--sometimes to the point of laughing tears--the whole way through, as both a movie fan and a book nerd-extraordinaire.
Overall: A