Stranger than Fiction
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“Stranger Than Fiction” is a quirky but overall very fine film.
IRS agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) lives his life according to routines and numbers (illustrated, Fight Club style, with animated on-screen graphics) until one day he hears the voice of a woman in his head, narrating his life as he is living it, as though he were a character in a book. Seeking help from a professor of literature (Dustin Hoffman), Harold is advised, à la Italo Calvino, to find out whether this book is a comedy (affirming the continuity of life in the form of the marriage plot) or a tragedy (affirming the inevitability of death). He is assigned to audit Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a Harvard Law drop-out bakery owner cum anarchist tax protester, and though the narrating voice tells him that he is falling for her (and she for him), the voice also tells him that he will die.
Harold tries to see if he can change his fate...[1]
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Last night I had the privilege of watching what I now consider one of the best movies in the last decade. Funny thing is, I almost passed this one over because it stars Will Ferrell who has been a stellar disappointment in pretty much every film he has been in since leaving Saturday Night Live. However, Stranger Than Fiction delivers, and Ferrell steps outside himself to perform in his first dramatic role.
Instead of spoiling any of the details by discussing the plot, I'm not going to write about this film. If you want to follow the link I've provided, it will take you to a more than absorbing summary of the tale, should you be the type of person who cannot commit to watching a film without knowing beforehand what it is about. Suffice it to say, I do not mention movies on my blog unless they are of exceptional artistic quality (or egregiously horrible), and contain a strong message. That being said, this movie is a must see!
I wanted to post a clip of the film, but everything out there is just too revealing. So instead I'll leave you with this quote lifted from the narrative.
As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange, but I also know that it just so happens to be true. And, so it was, a wristwatch saved Harold Crick.[2]
