Stranger Than Fiction (film)

Stranger than Fiction
Theatrical film poster
Directed by	Marc Forster
Produced by	Lindsay Doran
Written by	Zach Helm
Starring	Will Ferrell Maggie Gyllenhaal Dustin Hoffman Emma Thompson Queen Latifah Tony Hale
Music by	Britt Daniel Brian Reitzell
Cinematography	Roberto Schaefer
Editing by	Matt Chesse
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	November 10, 2006
Running time	113 min.
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Gross revenue	$40,660,952

Stranger than Fiction is a 2006 American dramedy film. The film is directed by Marc Forster, written by Zach Helm, and stars Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and Emma Thompson. Columbia Pictures distributed the film.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Main cast 3 Production 4 Music 5 Awards 6 Influences 7 Reception 8 References 9 External links

Plot

Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service, living his entire life based on the timing of his wristwatch. He is given the job to audit an intentionally tax-delinquent baker, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) to whom he is awkwardly attracted. On the same day, he begins hearing the voice of a woman that is omnisciently narrating the events in his life, but he is unable to communicate with the voice. On his way home, Harold's watch stops working and he resets it using the time given by a bystander; the voice narrates "little did he know that this seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death". Worried over this prediction, Harold turns to a psychiatrist who attributes the voice to schizophrenia. Harold listens to her conclusion without giving importance to it; to his insistence on what to do if it were not the case, she suggests Harold turn to a literary expert. Harold visits Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), a university professor, and relates his story; Jules first comes to the same conclusion as the psychiatrist, as Harold's dull life is not something commonly seen in novels. However, Jules then recognizes aspects of a literary work in Harold's story ("little did he know"), and encourages him to help identify the author, first by determining if the work is a comedy or a tragedy.

As Harold proceeds to audit Ana, the two begin to fall for each other, but when Harold refuses to accept cookies that Ana made for him as a possible bribe, Ana angrily tells him to leave, making Harold believe the story is a tragedy. Harold spends the next day at home to try to control his own destiny, but his apartment is partially demolished by a wrecking crew mistaking the building for an abandoned one. Harold reveals these facts to Jules, who believes that Harold cannot control the plot that has been set for him and should accept that he will die, telling Harold to enjoy whatever time he has left to the fullest. Harold takes this to heart; he takes an extended vacation from work, develops his friendship with his co-worker Dave (Tony Hale), fulfills his life dream of learning to play the guitar, and starts to see Ana on a regular basis, helping her to avoid tax issues by claiming charitable offerings. Harold believes he may have mistaken his story and now reassesses it as a comedy. When he returns to Jules with this revelation, Harold inadvertently identifies the voice in his head from a television interview as noted author Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson); Jules, a long-time fan of Karen's works, reveals that in every book she has written the main character has died.

Harold is able to find Karen through tax records, and learns that she is presently struggling from writer's block in how to kill off the character of Harold Crick in her latest book, Death and Taxes, envisioning numerous ways involving a child on a bicycle and a city bus, while her publisher has sent an assistant, Penny (Queen Latifah), to make sure the book gets completed. When she learns that Harold is a real person and has experienced everything she's written, she becomes horrified to consider all of her previous books may have also resulted in the deaths of real people. She tells Harold she has finally written a draft of the ending and his death, but hasn't typed it up yet. Penny suggests Harold read the book and the drafted ending to get his opinion. Harold is unable to bring himself to read it and gives the manuscript to Jules to review. Jules reads it and tells Harold that the manuscript is a masterpiece, his written death integral to its genius. Though Harold is deeply distressed over his fate, Jules comforts him by stating the inevitability of death - this death at least, will hold a deeper meaning by completing the book. Harold reads the manuscript himself, and comes to the same conclusion and returns the manuscript to Karen, accepting his death. He spends one last night with Ana.

The next day, Harold prepares to return to work after his vacation despite Karen's voice narrating the fateful day as she types up her planned ending. Due to getting the time from the stranger earlier, Harold's watch is three minutes too fast, and he happens to be able to save a child on a bicycle from being run over by a bus, though he himself is hit by the bus. Karen attempts to write Harold's death, but is unable to do so, and instead claims the watch was the character that died, and that fragments of the watch helped to block an artery in Harold's body after the collision, preventing him from bleeding to death. Harold wakes up to find himself in a hospital, alive though in traction and with several broken bones, with Ana by his side to help him recover. When Jules reads Karen's final manuscript, he notes that the story is weaker without Harold's death. Karen admits the flaw, although she points out that the story was meant to be about a man that unknowingly dies, and this was not the case. Therefore, she states that she would rather have the story end with Harold, expecting and accepting death, live.

Main cast

• Will Ferrell as Harold Crick - an IRS auditor who has led the exact same dull routine every week for twelve years, based on the timing of his wristwatch. After hearing his life narrated by an unseen woman, he becomes distressed but ultimately realizes he cannot control his fate, sparking a dramatic change in lifestyle. He later accepts his fate entirely and is willing to meet it for the sake of the novel's ending.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal as Ana Pascal - a baker that Crick meets when he is sent to audit her. She attended Harvard Law School but dropped out in favor of baking to "make the world a better place". Exceedingly antagonistic to Harold, she nonetheless falls for him during the audit. She is also highly averse to paying her taxes for things she doesn't want them to pay for, and humorously claims she is an anarchist.
• Dustin Hoffman as Professor Jules Hilbert - a literature professor who attempts to help Harold with his narration problem by offering advice and helping Harold define the story's genre. He later consoles Harold as his inevitable fate becomes more obvious with a detached view on Harold's looming demise.
• Emma Thompson as Karen Eiffel - a cynical and reclusive writer, as well as Crick's narrator, who is known for killing off her protagonists in her novels. She spends the much of the film partaking in morbid tasks, including visits to a hospital and imagining car wrecks during a rainstorm, for inspiration on how to kill Harold. After learning Harold is real, she begins to question her choice of literary styling.
• Queen Latifah as Penny Escher - an assistant to Karen whom her publisher has hired to make sure that she completes her new novel. She offers Karen advice and literary aids to cure her writer's block, all of which are rejected.
• Tony Hale as Dave - Harold's only true friend at work, with whom he stays after his apartment is partially demolished. His expressed desire to go to space camp helps inspire Harold to pursue his own dreams.

Production

The film was shot in Chicago, Illinois. Dave's apartment, in which Harold takes residence after his own building is partially demolished, is part of the River City Condominiums, designed by Bertrand Goldberg. Hilbert's office was in a lecture hall at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The bakery that Ana Pascal runs is actually located in the South Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago and is presently called the Catedral Cafe^[2]. Many downtown Chicago locations were used for scenes involving Karen Eiffel, Penny Escher, and Harold Crick.^[3]

Music

The music for this film includes original scores arranged by the collaborative effort of Brian Reitzell (Redd Kross, soundtracks for Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, and Thumbsucker) and Britt Daniel (singer/ songwriter of Spoon), as well as an eclectic mix of indie rock songs from various artists including Spoon.

The soundtrack includes the original recording of the song that Harold plays for Ana, "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric.

Awards

Will Ferrell was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as Harold Crick.

Zach Helm was nominated for Writers Guild of America Award in the Best Original Screenplay category.

Influences

Geometrical and mathematical motifs occur frequently throughout the film. According to bonus features on the DVD release of the film, these represent Harold's "GUI": his thoughts as he takes in the world made visible, and were designed to reflect Harold's OCPD-like counting and measuring behaviors. The fact that he sees number lines and other mid-air visualizations hints that he may have a mild form of synesthesia, a mental condition where senses melt together.

Reception

The film received positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, stating that the film was thought-provoking and moral, and that "Such an uncommonly intelligent film does not often get made...which requires us to enter the lives of these specific quiet, sweet, worthy people".^[4] Rolling Stone rated the film 3 stars, stating that though the premise of Ferrell's life being narrated is a set-up for farce, the film is "less self-reflexively clever and more intimate". ^[5] The film has a rating of 73% at Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.8,^[6] and a rating of 7.9 at the Internet Movie Database.^[7]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stranger Than Fiction (film)

• Official website
• Stranger Than Fiction (film) at the Internet Movie Database
• Stranger than Fiction at The Numbers

v • d • e Films directed by Marc Forster Everything Put Together (2000) · Monster's Ball (2001) · Finding Neverland (2004) · Stay (2005) · Stranger than Fiction (2006) · The Kite Runner (2007) · Quantum of Solace (2008)

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