The ideas around Stranger Than Fiction are so cliched and commonplace among writers that they actually become intriguing. Every fiction writer has writer's block, and they all have felt that godlike power and that their characters are real. So what if their characters are real — that they can actually manipulate their lives, or terminate them?
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an IRS agent who lives his life literally by the numbers. He counts his brush strokes in the morning and times his arrival to the bus stop at exactly the same moment the bus arrives. He eats alone and has no friends. He's rather content with his life until one day he hears a female voice saying, "Harold Crick just counted his brush strokes."
At first he thinks he's going through some kind of psychological breakdown, but soon discovers that the voice is actually narrating his life, accurately. It's simply a minor annoyance, until one day the voice says, "Little did he know, a chain of events have been set in motion to lead to his imminent death." He asks Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), a literary scholar, to help him find the voice and stop her from killing him. Jules suggests Harold face the inevitable and start living his life.
It turns out the voice belongs to best-selling novelist Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is suffering from a major writer's block: She doesn't know how to kill her character, who happens to be Harold. Impatient with her progress, her publisher sends her an assistant, Penny (Queen Latifah), to help her find a way to kill off Harold Crick. Meanwhile, Harold is falling for Anna, a feisty baker whose tax returns he is auditing. In a race against time, Harold must learn to unlearn everything and make every day count until he can find the voice.
Ferrell (Talladega Nights) is best known for his juvenile shticks. But if Elf was any indication, Ferrell is best when he lets his quiet, childlike quality carry the humor. Such is the case in Stranger Than Fiction. Ferrell is able to underplay his character with innocence and a subtle yet inherently funny undercurrent of befuddlement and resolve. As the blocked novelist, Thompson (Nanny McPhee) literally lets her hair down and is delightfully neurotic and manic-depressive. Ferrell and Thompson only share a brief scene together, but their chemistry as well as characterization of their respective characters play off each other very well.
The supporting cast is outstanding. Maggie Gyllenhaal (World Trade Center) is fantastic as Harold's unlikely object of affection. She could easily exaggerate her performance as a larger-than-life character opposite Ferrell's Harold Crick, but she chooses to play off her nuances and barb-coated sweetness. Hoffman (Meet the Fockers) is perfect as the indifferent professor who thinks life is either a tragedy or comedy depending on our outlooks. Latifah (Last Holiday) has a minor role as the assistant but she grounds Thompson's character.
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