Last night I watched Harold Crick prepare to die. It was sometime after a satisfying Thanksgiving meal and it seemed the thing to do. Well, more precisely, I watched Will Ferrell give what one would have to conclude is his most gravitating performance to date, in the new film Stranger than Fiction, by writer Zach Helm (Other People’s Business).
Now you have to understand that I am a writer, and as a writer, I sat in the theatre, a huge grin plastered on my face, in awe of the sheer literary fantasy I was witnessing on screen.
Farrell’s Crick is an obsessive-compulsive IRS auditor, who finds himself suddenly the main character in a story being narrated by the cosmos. The cosmos turns out to be Emma Thompson playing writer Kay Eiffel. Thompson, with her signature vengeance and wit, gives us a slightly off the edge novelist who has been suffering from writer’s block for the past ten years and is now obsessed with Crick’s death.
Enter the supporting cast. Dustin Hoffman, as literature professor Jules Hilbert, plays mentor to Crick in a straight on performance that has you loving every moment of his absolute dearth of reaction to the strange events unfolding in Crick’s life. We get the sense that for him, even stranger things have happened.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is talented as ever as a spunky, would be revolutionist baker and most unlikely of love interests for Ferrell’s Crick. But somehow, the magic is just there, and it works.
The one performance I didn’t care for was that of Queen Latifah as the dutiful assistant to Thompson’s Eiffel. It is hard to imagine Latifah as anything near dutiful, and her quiet and unobtrusive movements throughout the film simply ring false.
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Article comments
1 - Bliffle
Too bad the ending disappointed you. For a better ending, and perhaps a better movie, you might try "Hey Baba Re Bab!" a Yugoslavian movie made about 10 years ago. It's just a simple story about some 18 year old friends, 4 boys and a cute girl,and how they escape from Yugos;avia and what happens to them next.
Try it: you might like it.
2 - Jarom Olson
I really enjoyed the movie and the whitty comedy kept me well entertained. One thing that I noticed that really bothered me and took away from the effect of the movie, were the frequent appearances of microphone booms at the top of the frames. Did anyone else notice these? Just a thought.
3 - Aurel Montgomery
Bliffie, thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely try and track that down. Love the foreign stuff.
Jarom, wow! Can't believe I was so caught up in the fantasy that I totally missed that. I'll have to watch it again now.
Thanks for the comments,
Aurel
4 - nick
i am still confused, did the writer really kill him in the end? are we saying that, in order for someone to keep their good name in writing, someone must give up their life? I don't beleive in that selfish behavior of the writer. correct me if i am wrong..please..
5 - Aurel Montgomery
Hi Nick,
I don't want to spoil the ending here for those who havent seen it yet...but I beleive the writer behaved quite unselfishly indeed!
I don't have a problem with that, I just wanted to see something a bit more creative as things were winding up.
Cheers,
Aurel
6 - Kathy Scovill
What I loved most about this movie (and I too was disappointed in the ending) was the interaction between the writer and the main character. As a writer there are days when it feels as though the characters in your writing are running their own lives and you're just there to document. Then there are days when you feel like your manipulating your charcter by devising obstacles and roadblocks and watching to see how they behave as a result. That complex relationship between writer and character was powerful and entertaining to watch in this film.
7 - Aurel Montgomery
Kathy,
I couldn't agree more....that was largely the reason I was sitting up grinning throughout the film as if I was visiting Disneyland for the first time.
There was such a sense of familiarity to it, that I knew it was us few writers in the audience that were really getting it!
Aurel