Probably one of the more interesting cast movies in the 00′s, Stranger than Fiction featured film legends Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. The cast was rounded out by Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Queen Latifah. It almost seemed like a pass the torch movie, handing down movie tradition to a new generation.
The film is brilliantly acted. Ferrell doesn’t play his usual off-the-cuff improv funny man, but a more reserved, serious character.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service, living his entire life based on the timing of his wristwatch. He is given the job to audit an intentionally tax-delinquent baker, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to whom he is awkwardly attracted. On the same day, he begins hearing the voice of a woman that is omnisciently narrating the events in his life, but he is unable to communicate with the voice. On his way home, Harold’s watch stops working and he resets it using the time given by a bystander; the voice narrates “little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death”.
Harold attempts to change his fate, becoming a different person (read: better person) along the way.
Stranger than Fiction is one that you come away from thinking: ‘That was a good movie’
