Emma Thompson eclipses a cast of outstanding actors in Stranger Than Fiction. Devoid of make-up, constantly wringing her hands and endlessly puffing on cigarettes that she extinguishes before finishing, she narrates the book written by her on-screen character Karen Eiffel. Thompson is actually the only person to ever win Oscars for both acting and writing and she excels as the eccentric writer who spends her days imagining all manner of death. For, although the book is near completion, the celebrated author can’t figure out how to kill off the main character.
Then, as if writers’ block is not enough, Eiffel finds out that her fictional character is somehow also a real person. Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is an introverted tax investigator whose carefully controlled life is ruled by numbers and calculations. He is a man of remarkably few words but, inexplicably, he is suddenly aware his every action is being narrated by a disembodied female voice. This brings about an enormous amount of hilarity – at least for the audience. When the voice declares that he is facing imminent death, Crick realises he has to get back some control over his destiny. He’s a man who has been asleep for most of his life, suddenly waking up to realise that he has little time left.
Droll literary theorist Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) suggests that Crick might be able to change his fate by turning his story from tragedy into comedy, by utilising comedy’s most elemental device of developing a love story between two people who hate each other. This suggestion leads Crick to initiating an unlikely romance with free-spirited baker Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal) whom he just happens to be auditing. Crick’s tragic situation leads him to savouring life, along with fresh cookies, for the first time.
The genius of this film is that, as it intentionally blurs the line between comedy and tragedy, it challenges the audience to determine which genre the film will eventually conform to. All I can say is that this is one of those comedies that will have you crying. Apart from being about death and taxes, it also warms the heart, with each of the characters doing little things to help each other out. It becomes a tribute to the little things in life that are, in the end, our salvation.
Stranger Than Fiction is 113 minutes and is screening in most cinemas.
