Critical MeMe

Time spent watching films, even crappy ones, is time well-spent.

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Location: Oklahoma City, OK, United States
    Post dates are when I watched, parenthetical dates are the year of US release (aka Oscar eligibility).

3/20/2007

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

A while back, I came to the realization that I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell's comedies, but I'm starting to find that I rather like him when he plays it straight. Of course, I've only seen a couple of examples of him doing so: Winter Passing (a weak movie with an effective performance by Ferrell) and this movie, but so far so good.

This is a wonderfully original story -- boring man Harold Crick (Ferrell) starts hearing an internal narration (Emma Thompson) to his boring life and seeks help from a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman) to figure out what's going on and what to do about it. I just loved that what starts as an insanity-courting situation becomes a tool for Crick to change his life. He starts using the clues in the narration as a kind of "how-to" for making his life better, while attempting to change the narration's spoiled outcome.

I simply loved it. All of the actors are wonderfully right for their roles and the story is extremely satisfying (though I'd opt for a different ending -- which one will be obvious once you've seen it).

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