Film Reviews

Stranger Than Fiction

• Rating:
• Director: Marc Foster
• Starring: Dustin Hoffman
• Details: US / 113mins (12A).

Stranger Than Fiction is the best film Charlie Kaufman never wrote, and if you're a fan of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind and can't wait for the next Kaufman instalment, debutant Zach Helm will more than satisfy your needs in the meantime. Popular novelist Karen Effiel (Thompson) is currently working on the best book she has ever written about a lonely, bored IRS auditor called Harold Crick (Ferrell).Little does she know that Harold is a real person living across town - and can hear her narration of his life as she writes. Afraid he's losing his mind, Harold is directed by his therapist to professor of literature Jules Hibbert (Hoffman), and together they try to narrow down the possibilities of whom the author might be and how the book/Harold's life will end. Quirky, offbeat, hilarious, heartbreaking, original, sexy, challenging, fun - these are only a few words to describe, dare I say it, the best film released this year. Although it's a comedy and Will Ferrell is in it, this is not a Will Ferrell comedy - it's much more left field than that. Ferrell has never been better, happily dumping his screen persona for a more intricate character and he revels in his newfound freedom, delivering a poignant and reserved performance one would not usually associate with the man. His co-stars do much more than just stand around waiting to talk: Thompson plays the downtrodden writer in the throes of writer's block with perfection, Gyllenhaal gives her anti-government outbursts a little more than just second-hand ranting and Hoffman generously takes a back seat to all the shenanigans, while still playing a pivotal role. Even Queen Latifah is watchable. Stranger Than Fiction is a film to gush over and I really can't speak highly enough of it.

Review by Gavin Burke