Stranger Than Fiction (Blu-Ray)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	makes you feel warm and fluffy inside
Disadvantages:	a bit of a weak ending

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

~Introduction (to pad out review)~

Ok, so Snarf got HMV vouchers for Christmas, so we decided to spend them, amongst the films we picked up was Stranger than fiction, because he loves Will Farrell. I wasn't that bothered, and didn't really pay much attention, as we had also picked up a copy of Family Guy, Blue Harvest. Anyway I digress, I think my padding here is done…

~The Film~

The protagonist is Harold Crick (played by Will Farrell), gifted with super human mental arithmetic skills, so naturally, working for the IRS. Harold is a solitary existence, his only "friends" are work colleagues, who he does not socialise with, but does interact with on a daily basis, he is straight laced and focused on work, compelled to live his life following as many rules and routines as possible.

The film begins, and a woman, with an English accent is narrating, as if reading from a book, or as if film's script had been taken straight from a novel, sort of like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Harold goes about his daily life, and then one day, whilst brushing his teeth, 13 strokes up and 13 strokes down (or whatever it was), he started to hear the voice over, and of course freak out. The rest of the film watches him going more and more loopy as he tries to figure out who or what this voice is, that is so accurately describing his every move, is he really loopy?

The interesting part of the film comes when, his colleagues think that he may have been working a little too hard; he is assigned the "cushy" audit of a small Bakery. The Bakery owner is Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaall), a feisty, courageous, impulsive, intelligent young woman, who surprisingly, Harold finds himself instantly attracted to. Harold of course falls for Ana, but what gives this story its little twist, is that Harold starts to "take advice" from the voice over, and thus begins living a more exciting, enjoyable and fulfilling life, until one day, the voice over announces that Harold is about to die.

Harold obviously panics and sets about trying to discover, how he is going to die and who or what this voice over is, with the help of the slightly nutty university professor, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman).

Will Harold actually die? Is he just imagining the voice? What's going to happen between him & Ana Pascal? Is it true love?

~My thoughts~

I absolutely loved this film! I loved the way that the film was shot, it was really reminiscent of The Hitchhikers guide, the voice over was just a female version of the voice, there were quirky little animations "drawn" onto the film and quirky music, it felt light and it was easy to watch.

The acting was brilliant, Will Farrell played his role very convincingly, and I really warmed to Harold Crick and did really start to empathise with the character. I also really liked Maggie Gyllenhaal, as "Miss Pascal" as Mr Crick's love interest. I am not normally a fan of "Rom-coms' but this felt really sweet, and fit nicely into the film, which was a sort of dark greyish comedy.

The script was very well written, although the story was "predictable", it didn't seem to matter, and the novel (no pun intended) idea that Harold is listening to his life being narrated, made the story line and direction of the film seem fresh and heart-warming.

*Possible hinting at the ending, so divert your eyes, until I say it is ok*

The reason that this film is only getting four stars, instead of the five it could have achieved, is because of the ending. I was disappointed by the ending, but to be honest, the writers could not have written the ending that I was hoping for, in a way though, I think the writers knew that people would feel like that when they watched the film, so they had one of the characters justify the ending in a conversation with another. I found this a bit of a cop out, if they had to justify the ending so blatantly, they must have known that they were selling out a little, the film is beautifully simple and clear and says what it needs to and manages to get its point across very well, engaging the audience and making them warm to the characters.

All in all, this was a brilliant film, I would definitely watch this again, best saved for a Sunday evening before bed - it will make you feel good for the working week ahead, or at least until you get to work, or in my case, hear the alarm go off!

Blu-Ray Vs. Normal DVDs

We have a PS3 which plays blu-ray disks, and to be honest, for the extra money (blu-ray disks are about £30) it does not make any difference to your viewing pleasure. Blu-Ray only makes a noticeable difference when watching on a HD TV, which we don't have, so no differece could be noticed. Snarf's parents do however have an HD TV and they have just got Sky HD, which means that they are watching the same picture quality (on certain channels) as you would expect from a Blu-Ray disk. The picture quality is a lot sharper, for instance in a big crowd of people (say watching a football match on the TV), whilst watching on normal TV you will notice that the faces of the crowd are blurred out, on HD (so like Blu-Ray) you will be able to see all the faces clearly, and the image is a lot sharper. In my opinion, it is not worth paying the extra yet, wait until the technology develops further and the price is dropped.