Stranger Than Fiction

A-

I was a little wary of this movie. I was thinking it would be a showcase for Will Ferrell like The Truman Show was for Jim Carrey. But it comes off perfectly and instead goes off more in the direction of something Charlie Kauffman would write (though I thought it held together better than Adaptation). Ferrell expands his range by understating the role but keeping his usual energy on tap when needed. There is some great writing with strong supporting performances by Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman (his best performance in a long time). Essentially a romantic comedy (hope I'm not giving away the ending), Maggie Gyllenhaal is radiant as the object of Ferrell's affections. Queen Latifah and Tony Hale (from Arrested Development) turn in good small performances too.

Another star of the movie is the music, which I liked right off the bat with one of my favorite songs by Spoon, "That's the Way We Get By." In fact it turns out that Spoon's lead singer, Britt Daniel, wrote a few new songs for the movie (mostly instrumentals, or at least played that way in the movie, until the ending credits).

There are other great touches. Some of Zach Helm's writing is just perfect. Since the movie is about a writer, that can get heavy-handed and narcissistic, but it seems to me they hit the right note. The director, Marc Foster, does some great stuff, with an animated overlay of what Ferrell's character is quantifying, and there is a great scene on an articulated bus where the bending of the bus as it winds its way through Chicago puts Ferrell and Gyllenhaal in dynamic juxtaposition even though both are sitting still.

The movie slows down a lot during its last half and the ending seems unnecessarily drawn out, so I will take off a little for that, but it remains easy to watch and always entertaining. This is a great package of inventive writing, clever direction, and solid performances. It gets an A-.

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