Stranger than Fiction

First, quick thing, Fountain Soundtrack is awesome, check out The Last Man or Stay with me for an idea of how great it is. Death is the Road to Awe also is striking, it's the song from the climax of the movie, it is so epic.

So, I saw Stranger than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, etc. Plot is Ferrell starts hearing someone narrating his life, the narrator being Emma Thompson who uses him as a character in his book, and she is going to kill him off. Ferrell lives his life to the fullest while also trying to find the author to stop her from killing him.

Now this whole plot device is never explained, so don't expect there to be any resolution in that regard. Just try to enjoy the movie, ignoring any reason.

Will Ferrell puts on a superb performance. Normally the comedy actor we all know and love, he plays an IRS auditor absolutely brilliantly. He is innocent, and this helps the romance plot with Maggie Gyllenhaal work so much better. Normally, I wouldn't believe an auditor and auditee could fall in love, considering the circumstances, but Ferrell plays such a genuinely nice guy, you believe it. The other performances are great, nothing bad at all. The mood was odd, not bad, and overall I think it worked. There were comedic parts, there were parts that were meant to be sad, but weren't because they weren't done very... sadly I guess? Yet, it was quirky in a way. Not indie film quirky, but rather it looked at the world in a sweeter, more skewed fashion.

Gripe Time... The movie slogged down into Clicheville in the middle portion. At this time, Hoffman tells Ferrell to live his life as he always wanted to if he knows he is going to die. So, Ferrell lives his life to the fullest. All the stuff about the narration is forgotten so Ferrell can live his life to the fullest. All nice, expect this story has been told countless times. This is used so Ferrell can woo Gyllenhaal, and there is some nice stuff, but I really don't like the "living life to the fullest" story and I thought it was a cheap way to fool me. Luckily, the narration plot was brought back and I was happy. In the long run, the plot for the whole movie was only average. The lack of any sound explanation did deter from full enjoyment, even if I did say to just ignore logic at the beginning of this review. I aslo felt they could have gone deeper into looking at books, how books are written, what makes up a good book etc... although I guess that would have been too smart for a Hollywood movie.

All in all, this was a good movie. Don't expect your world to be shaken to its' core. It was worth seeing for Ferrell's performance, but the plot demanded a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Coming This WEEK!- Fast Food Nation and For Your Consideration