Stranger than Fiction, Will Ferrel’s best dramatic work

Stranger than Fiction is a 2006 PG-13 film defined as a “fantasy romance, comedy drama.” It stars Will Ferrell as Harold Crick and as Harold’s wristwatch, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the love interest. Directed by Marc Forster, it also stars Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah.

 

Harold Crick is a content IRS agent who has been doing only routine duties for the past 12 years, until one day his wristwatch makes him late for the bus. He finds out about this late-ness beforehand from a narrating voice who finds her way to his bathroom one morning as he’s brushing his teeth. Only he can hear her, and she is correct about everything. At that same time across town, Karen Eiffel, played by Thompson, is suffering writer's block in her developing book, a tragedy about a doomed character named Harold Crick; her only problem is, she is uncertain how to bring about his death.

 

While attempting to deal with the voice only he can hear, he is put in the path of a literary man, Professor Jules Hilbert, played by Hoffman, and because of one of the lines the narrator said to Harold, “Little did he know….” They do their best to find out whether Harold is in a tragedy or a comedy: Hoffman quotes Italo Calvino, “The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: The continuity of life, or the tragedy of death.” After eliminating which authors it couldn’t be, the two men are led to an author it could be, Karen Eiffel.

 

During this time Harold, due to his IRS job, has to audit Gyllenhaal, a bakery owner who purposely didn’t pay her taxes, and he starts to have feelings for her. His narrator confirms this. Despite a trip up or two along the way, Harold and Gyllenhaal start to hit things off, and he starts to like his life.

 

Professor Hilbert suggests that since it seems Harold is in charge of his story, he should try to prevent his approaching death by doing nothing, to see if the plot tries to find him: It does. Hilbert says, “Meeting an insurance agent the day your policy runs out is coincidence. Getting a letter from the emperor is plot. Having your apartment eaten by a wrecking ball is something else entirely. 

 

“Harold, you’re not in control of your life.”

 

From this point on Harold makes radical changes. 

 

One thing I would like to point out before you watch this movie is the architecture. The movie was filmed in precisely selected locations around Chicago, including unique buildings, rooms, stairs, offices, hallways, bedrooms, bakeries, street corners, bus stops, bus seats. Even the food is unique, and the plates explode with personality. Every shot was sought after, the after effect of this movie as it ends is amazing.

 

What is sad is that the two main characters, Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal, don’t do this anymore. The past twenty years have changed them so much I doubt we’ll see anything like this from either of them again. But check out Stranger than Fiction, it won’t be a waste of time.