Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction in some ways reminds me of Being John Malcovich. It starts with characters who for all intensive purposes are unhappy and in a rut, until something happens to change their circumstance. In this movie, Harold Crick is an IRS audit agent whose life changes when he starts to hear a woman's voice that happens to be narrating his life. The voice is Kay Eiffel, an author trying to write a novel which so far has taken ten years to create. As it turns out she is Harold Crick's narrator and is also writing Harold's life. This would have been fine for Harold, except Kay writes tragic novels in which the main character always dies.

I found this movie interesting as well as funny and sad at the same time. This is the type of movie that I think one has to watch more than once to catch all the nuances as well as some of the dialogue (laughs from the audience caused me to miss the next line). While this movie is a comedy, it is not all fun and games. I would describe this as more of a black comedy. Good thing I like black comedies (see number 5 of my top 5 favorites). Will Farrell plays a sad and unhappy character which is a change from his normal buffoon-like characters. I liked Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman , and Maggie Gyllenhall's characters as well. While I enjoyed the film and will probably see it again, it did not oust any of my top 5 favorites. (I hope I don't get audited due to this review - TAX MAN!)