Jean Anouilh, a French dramatist, has wisely observed: "Death has to be waiting at the end of the ride, before you truly see the earth, and feel your heart, and love the world." Here is an imaginative movie that offers the viewer a chance to look at several interesting things: the question as to whether our life is a comedy or a tragedy; the roadblocks that can come in the creative process; and the way in which love can transform our character and send us on fresh paths when we least expect it. Marc Forster directs this comedy with a fine eye for its whimsy and fantasy. The clever and light-hearted screenplay by Zach Helm provides us with plenty of opportunities to step into the shoes of the lead character as he undergoes some major changes.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an anal-retentive IRS clerk who has fashioned a highly rigid and routinized life which allows him little chance to relate to others or experience things spontaneously. He brushes his teeth a set number of times and always runs to the bus so he gets there at just the right moment. Crick finds a certain comfort in his well-structured existence, and perhaps that is why fate intervenes and challenges him to consider other alternatives.
On day he starts hearing the voice of a British woman speaking in his head and describing every one of his actions. "I'm a character in my own life," he tells a psychiatrist (Linda Hunt), who concludes he might be schizophrenic. She recommends that he see professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) since Crick senses there is something literary about what is happening to him.
It turns out that the bestselling author Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is the voice inside the I.R.S. man's head. She is experiencing writer's block, and her publisher has sent a non-nonsense assistant (Queen Latifah) to help her finish a book. Eiffel, who is as lonely as Crick, is having a hard time coming up with a way to kill her main character off, a feat she has accomplished imaginatively in eight other novels much to the delight of her readers. As she does research on the story, Crick desperately tries to make sense of what is happening to him. Most of the time, he feels like he is a puppet being manipulated by someone else who has little regard for his well-being. Sadly enough, this is how millions of people feel as they stagger through their days feeling out of place in their own stories.
Crick experiences a breakthrough when Professor Hilbert tells him that he must discern whether his life is a comedy or a tragedy. (Which would you choose?) He picks up some very definite ideas on how to answer that question when he starts a complicated relationship with Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a free-spirited baker who on principle has not paid part of her income taxes as a protest against war and military expenditures. At first, she can't abide this tax man who stands for everything she resents but gradually she warms him up with a sampler of her delicious cookies. Perhaps the filmmakers are trying to tell us that a feast of sweetness is all we need to begin the journey of seeing our lives as comedies with a surfeit of happy coincidences and surprises.
The finale of Stranger than Fiction is a spiritual delight which we will let you to discover on your own. Here is another movie that wants us to consider that death can open the door to feeling our hearts and loving the world in ways that are beyond our imagining. This engaging comedy is carried by strong and appealing performances by Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It is the kind of story that bears repeated viewings to savor all of the nuances that make our lives such a mystery and such an adventure.
Special DVD features include deleted and extended scenes; Actors In Search Of A Story: director Marc Forster discusses why each cast member was such an integral part of the film; Building The Team: Marc Forster discusses the importance and contribution of each of his “team” members including director of photography, production design, costume designer, writer, producers, editors, VFX team, etc.; On Location in Chicago: an in-depth look at why Chicago was chosen as the place to shoot the film; Words on a Page: an interview with producer Lindsay Doran and writer Zach Helm; Picture a Number: a look at the special effects; and On The Set: A montage of funny on the set moments.
