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This film is so complex and philosophical at the same time. arche Marc Forster’s “Stranger Than Fiction” is a romance, comedy, and fantastical film all in one but it is in actuality a fable, stories that derive a moral lesson, just like Eric Rohmer says.
Will Ferrell is in this film and like Steve Martin and Robin Williams, Ferrell shows he has equally as diverse dramatic talent as he does comedic talent. Ferrell plays an IRS auditor named Harold Crick who has led a very monotonous and structured life for many years. He lives in an apartment that seemingly looks like it was decorated with a fifteen minute stop in Crate and Barrel. After some time, his watch gets annoyed with this lifestyle and decides to do something about it.
Harold’s story begins when he starts hearing a voice describing his life, as if it had just happened. This voice is telling his life story, not narrating an event that is yet to happen. He goes to see a shrink (Linda Hunt) and is so sure about hearing his life narrative that he goes to see Jules Hilbert, the literature professor (Dustin Hoffman). Hilbert methodically checks off genres and archetypes and compiles a lists of authors who he assumes could be “narrating” Harold’s life. He is careless, however, with Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), because he decides that Harold’s story is a comedy and all her novels end in death. Yet she is composing Harold’s life. What Hilbert failed to foresee is that the story ends with Harold’s death, which is the moral of the story.
In the mean time, something remarkable happens. Harold decides to go and audit the tax return of Ana Pascal, a chipper tattooed owner of a bakery (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and starts thinking about her. Cannot help it. Love has never an emotion he has experienced. She doesn’t hold much esteem for IRS accountants either.
Let’s talk about art and the responsibilities that come along with it. It is certainly rare to find a profound film about this topic. “If Eiffel’s novel was a masterpiece with Harold’s death, does he have a right to live? Does she have the right to kill him for her work? You have to die. It’s a masterpiece.” Does he have to die? \n \nBut life was just getting interesting for Harold. The preposterous, roundabout manner in which Ana and Harold’s relationship develops is perfect for Gyllenhaal’s soft manner of subtle humor. Harold doesn’t want to die. On the contrary, he has spent so much time as a good little soldier to so much as being given a duty – and he is so unbelievably passive and nice, he hates to disappoint Eíffel. He has never written a masterpiece, so why would he even disappoint Eíffel by simply existing?
Even though the clear self-reference is like An “Adaptation” Charlie Kaufman Self-Referential Screenplay, it made me recollect of another possible intertextuality parallel Melville famous short story ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’ which was adapted into a movie with Crispin Glover and David Paymer in 2001. In the film, Bartleby is an office worker who, for no clear reason, one day declines a request from his boss by saying, “I would prefer not to.” Like Bartleby, Harold Crick works in a large office and spends his days toiling over papers that are meaningless to him. One day, however, he undertakes a number of actions that are gentle, yet irrevocable.
And like that, Harold would as rather not perform any more audits for tax returns, and he would rather not die. He is, however, such a gentle and good soul that the second option entails a great deal of self-reflection, which is why it is interesting to see how much Hilbert and Ana play a role in it, directly and indirect, some of them having excellent cookies. And when it comes to Eiffel, what are her preferences when she finds the clear power that she has? An “assistant,” played by Queen Latifah, who was tasked to help her through the writer’s block so there is some pressure there. She has an inclination towards chain smoking or committing suicide.
The director, Marc Forster, captures the melancholic side in ‘Monster’s Ball’ as well as the more fantastical side in ‘Finding Neverland’. In each of his works, there seems to be a blend of the two opposing sides. He prefers to film at an unidentified Chicago, selecting the cold and bare Mies van der Rohe buildings. Forster also adds amusing graphics that illustrate how Harold compulsively counts and perceives spatial relationships.
Forster aims to achieve a subtle earnestness from the actors. Will Ferrell plays a ‘puzzled but hopeful’ character attempting to get ‘the right thing’. Gyllenhaal and Hoffman, along with me, appreciate the exaggerated apathy with which Hoffman and Thompson view the literature that is so emotionally charged and is met with cold, academic indifference. Unfortunately, Forster seems out of touch with the character of Latifah, which is perhaps a role that does not need to exist.
“Stranger Than Fiction” is about life, art, romance, reflection, and the responsibilities we hold. A film as intelligent as this one is not produced very often, and for a good reason. The film could have cranked up the emotion to a blockbuster level, but that emotion would be inappropriate for the premise that requires us to inhabit the existence of these specific gentle, lovely, admirable people. It is a compromise. It is not the film’s compromise, but the characters’, and it is entirely theirs. And it made me smile.
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