It's the Easter break for university students, and I have been lazing about at home. Finding movies to watch is one way to pass the time. So I've been frantically trying to find a good movie to watch, and I knowing Will Ferrell movies to be enjoyable I decided to watch Stranger Than Fiction.
It turned out to be an excellent decision, becoming one of my favourite movies, for now.
It begins introducing the character Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) who is an IRS agent for auditing. He has a cringe worthy daily routine of counting teeth brushing strokes, number of steps taken, and catching the bus just as it's about to leave stop. All this is kept to plan by his trusty, somewhat asthetically pleasing, wristwatch.
His life is a perfect routine until one day he hears a perfectly accurate narration of his actions, by a female voice with a English accent.
The voice actually belongs to a novelist, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is trying to put an ending to her come back novel by killing off her main character, Harold Crick. It's a potential masterpiece, but she has writers block and is constantly thinking of tragic way of dying. So the publishers send an assistant, Penny Escher (Queen Latifah), to help her come to a conclusion.
Harold Crick on the otherhand is getting more and more paranoid with the voice that only he hears, until one day the mention of death turns his life upside down. He seeks the help of literature professor Jules Hilbert for help. They discover that he is in a tragedy. Harold tries to seek out the author of his tragedy to try and make her change his ending.
I won't say anymore about the plot, there is plenty more.
Performances be the three leads, Ferrel, Thompson, and Hoffman are excellent. I think this is Will Ferrel's most moving performance, it shows his skill as an actor. The three are perfect for making this movie work well with it's strange plotline.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for a comedy with more meaning. It'll make you laugh, think, and even cry. Personally it has made me think about literature from a different perspective, a more intuitive perspective.
A good place to buy this is play.com, it's currently available for £11.99 on DVD, and £17.99 on Blu-ray disc inclusive of delivery.
Great film!
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Comedy - Director: Tony Dow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: John Challis, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Watched this film last night and I absolutely love it. The best thing about it was the surprisingly brilliant performances, you see the cast list initially and have reservations but they all delivered amazing performances and often went the opposite way from what you would expect. Emma Thompson was amazing though! Love it, great review.
Much was written about Will Ferrell's first "dramatic role" as Harold Crick, an IRS ... more
auditor who begins hearing a voice narrating his life. ButStranger Than Fictionis hardly a drama. However, what Ferrell does--like Jim Carrey before him inThe Truman Sh...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick, a lonely tax man whose world is turned upside-down ... more
when he starts hearing a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of Professor Jules Hilbert, the bewildered and hilariously resistant Harold discovers he'...
Advantages: A unique, intriguing and well-written story with some powerful performances. Disadvantages: the ending has been considered by some to be too neatly tied up.
Advantages: Easy to understand - documents ALL her life and her impact upon England as a ruler. Disadvantages: Some people might prefer a 'traditional' film adaptation.
Advantages: Witty, gritty, thrilling... the best gangster film I've seen in years. Disadvantages: A bit of a Deus ex machina ending, some predictable moments...negligable really
Entwife 08.06.2007 (04.02.2008)
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Apr 6th, 2007
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