Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
I’m quite a fan of Marc Foster, the German born Hollywood movie director and I do rate him as one of the best Directors. Even his list acclaimed film “Stay” will be on my short list of favorites. I had only one movie of Mar Foster left which I didn’t watch. That was “Stranger Than Fiction” which I watched a few days ago. And, yeah, I’ve been mesmerized by that movie also. What I love most about Marc Foster’s work is that his movies are always captivating. Whether it’s about sensitive issues like “Monster’s Ball” or a fantasy romance like “Finding Neverland” or even an absurd flick like “Stay”, it always keeps the eyes and mind of the viewer busy, through every moment of the film until it finishes. And usually keeps the mind of audience captivated even hours after it is finished- you have to watch his film with full attention, will be moved by it if not you are a total dumb, and should be think over it, at least a couple of times.
Stranger Than Fiction is a fantasy film, but not like Finding Neverland in anyway. Stranger Than Fiction is a pure fantasy, kind of absurd screenplay with some magic realistic twist. Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an IRS auditor. He is a number-maniac, every least detail of his life is scheduled and assigned with a specific number signifying time or count. His life is basically a series of daily repetition of same activities at the same time. His life stays so until he starts to hear a woman’s voice narrating his life. Later he came to understand that he is the main character of a novel which is being written by a woman whose voice is chasing him from the thin air. And the novel was revealed to be a tragedy ending with the spectacular death of the main character i.e. Harold Crick. The author, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), an eccentric and perfectionist writer who is known for her tragedic ends, also became upset to find out the existence of the main character of her supposedly ‘fictitious’ fiction. But it was too late, she already devised how Harold will die and wrote it in a scrap. And without this ending, the whole novel means nothing, the literary value is totally lost. So, the tension builds up, and the viewer start anticipating about how the movie can possibly end. Well, the ending was not disappointing at all, rather it was the most enlightening part of the movie. Though this was the main stream of the film, many little accounts and other interesting characters added more to the movie. The main cast are (from wikipedia):
- Will Ferrell – Harold Crick, an IRS auditor, who thinks he is hearing his life as it’s being narrated, causing him to seek professional help.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal – Ana Pascal, a baker that Crick meets when he is sent to audit her.
- Dustin Hoffman – Professor Jules Hilbert, a literature professor who attempts to help Harold with his narration problem.
- Emma Thompson – Karen Eiffel, a famous writer and Crick’s narrator who is known for killing off her protagonists.
- Queen Latifah – Penny Escher, an assistant to Eiffel whom her publisher has hired to make sure that she completes her new novel.
- Tony Hale – Dave, Harold’s only real friend at work, with whom he stays after his apartment is partially demolished.
The film is kind of an educating one. It teaches the value of little blessings of life which we tend to ignore everyday. The film is capable to inspire, to change the perspective with which we judge ourselves and react towards life.
And, an interesting thing about the movie was that the naming of the characters was connected with famous scientists and mathematicians in like; Francis Crick, James Watson, Gustave Eiffel, David Hilbert, Nicholas Mercator, Blaise Pascal, Arthur Cayley, and Gösta Mittag-Leffler.
Posted by Inan 
Posted by Inan 
Posted by Inan 
