Stranger Than Fiction (2006): C

Thanks to its metaphysical, life-as-art narrative conceit, Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction has been dubbed, in some disparaging circles, Charlie Kaufman Lite. One might add that it’s also Drama Lite, Comedy Lite, and Will Ferrell Lite, the entire production such a featherweight nothing that it engenders only indifference. In screenwriter Zach Helm’s oh-so-cute tale, IRS agent Harold Crick (Ferrell, his endearing wackiness nowhere to be found) begins hearing an omniscient voice narrate his everyday routines, a situation that becomes more dire when the voice starts discussing his impending demise. What ensues is Harold’s rebirth into a man who doesn’t count toothbrush strokes or the number of steps it takes to reach the bus stop but, instead, embraces life, which he accomplishes via the help of an anti-establishment baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a literary professor (Dustin Hoffman), and, eventually, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), the reclusive author of the novel in which Harold – through some inexplicable (and thus left-unexplained) twist of fate – is the tragic protagonist. Faux-profound uplift is in abundant supply throughout Stranger Than Fiction. So, ultimately, is self-conscious cleverness and precious quirkiness, the film diagramming its coincidences and calamities with such schematic precision – and unimaginatively gussying up its action with graphical touches “borrowed” from Fight Club’s IKEA catalog sequence – that any spark of spontaneity or authentic passion/misery is more or less annihilated.

Comments

[rob]

I'd been pondering seeing this one in theaters or not; you've convinced me to at least wait until DVD. I've better things to do with my time for the moment.

Good review of The Fountain, btw. I've been looking forward to this one for years (the first time I saw Pi, it was such a mind trip that I stayed up the whole night thereafter), and your words said plenty of what I'd been hoping to hear.

I hope you're feeling better. Ed said that you'd wanted to cover Let's Go to Prison, save for your laptop being busted. Truth be told, I felt a little bad slapping it with zero stars, if only because doing so this early in my Slant career feels like excessive police brutality. But then I remind myself that I enjoyed House of the Dead more, and I felt no pity for it.

[Nick]

Rob,

I was tired of Stranger Than Fiction after about five minutes - it peddles exactly the sort of forced whimsy that its trailer and commercials suggest. Not awful, and there are a few nice moments, but the whole thing is phony.

As for The Fountain, I'll be interested to hear what you think. I too had been looking forward to it, but I'm surprised at how much it's stuck with me since last Monday's screening. As I said in my review, people are either going to love it or hate it, and my gut tells me that there'll be more haters than lovers. But despite its flaws, it just got to me.

Feeling better, as is my laptop (thankfully!). I was a bit surprised at the zero star review of Let's Go to Prison, but hey, if you really loathed it, you really loathed it. Can't say I was exactly chomping at the bit to cover it, but I definitely would have preferred seeing it to what I wound up spending Friday afternoon sitting through - Deck the Halls.

[rob]

Yeah, I'm almost eager to hear the haters complainining, so we'll see how that goes. Lately, I've been gravitating more towards the kind of films that divide people - there's nothing wrong with an actually good movie with broad appeal, but more potent are the movies that draw out the sharpest of responses on both ends (more than any other this year, Miami Vice - I can't wait for the DVD).

Aside from what I already wrote in the review, the only way I can think of to desribe the experience of LGTP is the following: you know how people usually squirm in their seats when Eugene Levy's characters attempt some form of a joke? That's LGTP at its best. Of course, that's only my book. While I doubt I could ever share their opinion, I could respect someone who dug it's weird "humor", just like Ed and mine's completely opposite takes on Eurotrip.