Will Ferrell as Harold Frick in Stranger Than Fiction. (Columbia)
Following in the footsteps of Robin Williams and Bill Murray, Will Ferrell decides to put his comedic talents to work in a film that also has dramatic elements. Stranger Than Fiction (opening November 10 throughout San Diego) offers Ferrell as a man who no longer seems to have control of his life.
I dont know if it's possible for an individual writer to become a genre in and of himself but that seems to be the case for Charlie Kaufman. The clever screenwriter who penned Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind seems to have inspired a genre of films in which reality and fantasy collide in odd ways. This year both Science of Sleep and the new Stranger Than Fiction , serve up storylines that seem like they could have come form the fertile imagination of Kaufman. But unfortunately for both, they come from the less fertile imaginations of others.
Nathan Gibbs
April 30, 2007 at 07:32 PM
I'm not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but am a fan of Kaufman, and I still enjoyed the film. I agree that they avoided the hard questions and stayed safe. The ending proves that point (they should have killed Crick). And I also thought you were right to say the film itself couldn't quite decide if it was a tragedy or comedy. But that was a curious dynamic during the film. I liked Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson's performances, and the film overall.
David
December 03, 2007 at 09:32 PM
Zack Helm does not care about Jehova's Witnesses, and neither do anyone else who reads this movie review.
