Reviews by Matt

“Stranger Than Fiction” is about Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) an IRS agent who one day wakes up and finds that his life is narrated. He becomes convinced that he is a part of a story and one day he hears that he is going to die at the end. He finds an English professor, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) who is the only one who believes him. Professor Hilbert tries to figure out what type of story he is in so that he can narrow down who the narrator is and what type of story he is in. During all of all this, Harold is in the middle of an audit of a baker, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who he starts to fall in love with. Meanwhile, the narrator of Harold Crick’s life, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thomson), is struggling to find a way to kill Harold Crick (the fictional character) not knowing that she is actually writing about the real Harold Crick.

So who thought Will Ferrell could actually act? He steps out of his usual role of the guy who is so dumb he is likable. In “Stranger Than Fiction,” Ferrell is able to show that he is not a one-trick actor. Harold is smart, but socially awkward. He lives a boring, lonely life. It is not until he is told that he is going to die, that he takes charge and lives his life to the fullest. Knowing Ferrell and his work, it was great to finally see that he doesn’t have to be yelling, or making an ass of himself, to be funny. He keeps it to a quite, subtle comedy and does a fantastic job. He doesn’t have to be over the top to still be as funny as he can be.

The other star performance if this movie is Dustin Hoffman. His quest to discover what type of book Harold Crick is in goes to some weird places. He asks Harold a list of questions such as “Is there a clandestine village under your floorboards?” and “Are you the king of anything?” Dustin Hoffman has a knack for comedy though he has not done much in this genre until recently. He has a gift for balancing drama and comedy and is at his best in this movie. He is able to play the funny scenes and the dramatic ones with the same believability. Hoffman has been one of the best actors in Hollywood for decades and continues to do a fantastic job in any role even if everything else in the movie is lacking. Luckily for him this movie is strong and he is not let to bare the burden of carrying the movie.

Here is one performance you won’t hear about in other reviews, mostly because it is of an inanimate object, the watch. It becomes another actor in this movie. The movie opens with narration about the watch, and it plays a big part in the all over story of the movie. As Ana passes Harold as he waits for his bus, the watch fritzes out and starts beeping and making all sorts of weird noises. Kay’s narration even gives the watch its own thoughts. She explains how the watch feels about certain things Harold does, or doesn’t do. It is the watch by which Harold lives, he wakes up to it everyday and it is timed just so he can get to his bus stop when he needs too.

This movie is full of performances to watch and performances by watches, I know, bad pun. Everyone gives strong performances, no matter how small a part. It is great to see that Ferrell has decided not to stick with the typical Will Ferrell role and shows that he can act. If you want another movie where Ferrell shines rent “Winter Passing,” a movie that went unnoticed, but showcases Ferrell’s acting talent. I sense that he will start to move away from the Ricky Bobby roles and stick with more roles like this one. He has managed to show that he is not pigeonholed into a type and can do drama as well as he can comedy.

7 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.
Runtime: 113 min