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Movies / Upcoming / Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction

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Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

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Reviews Counted:165

Fresh:119

Rotten:46

Average Rating:6.8/10

Consensus: A fun, whimsical tale about about an office drone trying to save his life from his narrator. The cast obviously is having a blast with the script, but Stranger Than Fiction's tidy lessons make this metaphysical movie feel like Charlie Kaufman-lite.

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Comedies

US Box Office: $40,137,776

Synopsis: One morning, a seemingly average and generally solitary IRS agent named Harold Crick begins to hear a female voice narrating his every action, thought and feeling in alarmingly precise detail.... One morning, a seemingly average and generally solitary IRS agent named Harold Crick begins to hear a female voice narrating his every action, thought and feeling in alarmingly precise detail. Harold's carefully controlled life is turned upside down by this narration only he can hear, and when the voice declares that Harold Crick is facing imminent death, he realizes he must find out who is writing his story and persuade her to change the ending. The voice in Harold's head turns out to be the once celebrated, but now nearly forgotten, novelist Karen "Kay" Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is struggling to find an ending for what might be her best book. Her only remaining challenge is to figure out a way to kill her main character, but little does she know that Harold Crick is alive and well and inexplicably aware of her words and her plans for him. To make matters worse, Kay's publisher has dispatched a hard-nosed "assistant," Penny Escher (Queen Latifah), to force Kay to finish her novel and finish off Harold Crick. Desperate to take control of his destiny and avoid an untimely demise, Harold seeks help from a literary theorist named Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who suggests that Harold might be able to change his fate by turning his story from a tragedy into a comedy. Professor Hilbert suggests that Harold try to follow one of comedy's most elemental formulas: a love story between two people who hate each other. His suggestion leads Harold to initiate an unlikely romance with a free-spirited baker named Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal). As Harold experiences true love and true life for the first time, he becomes convinced that he has escaped his fate, as his story seems to be taking on all the trappings of a comedy in which he will not, and cannot, die. But Harold is unaware that in a Karen Eiffel tragedy, the lead characters always die at exactly the moment when they have the most to live for. Harold and Kay find themselves in unexplored territory as each must weigh the value of a single human existence against what might just be an immortal work of art: a novel about life and death -- and taxes. --© Sony Pictures [More]

Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman

Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Tony Hale, Queen Latifah, Kristin Chenoweth

Director: Marc Forster

Director: Marc Forster
Producer: Lindsay Doran, Aubrey Henderson, Jim Miller, Brittany Daniel
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Reviews for Stranger Than Fiction

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: In Film Australia | comment Comment
02/14/07
In Film Australia
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Ferrell rules in this film. I take back my words of prejudice. This is the smartest film in town.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/26/07
Paul Byrnes
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Writer's block has never been so entertaining.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/25/07
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

While Stranger Than Fiction traffics in a bit of darkly funny existential anxiety, it also finds room for romantic fantasy and sentimental uplift.

comment Comment
11/10/06
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Stranger Than Fiction might be film, but it moves like a novel: a literate, unhurried tale marked by softly wrought reflections on the self-made life.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
11/10/06
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

for all its faults, it blazes new trails in mixing popular entertainment and philosophy, not to mention metaphysics, with enough panache to make it all seem eminently sensible.

Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | comment Comment
11/25/06
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

A film well worth seeing and savoring.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
11/15/06
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

Unlike the brainier Kaufman stories, it's easy to understand how matters are proceeding here without an air of pretentiousness.

Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca | comment Comment
11/24/06
Angela Baldassarre
Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

This creative film presents a whimsical story that entertains us while also making us think about our own mortality and what's important in life.

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
11/12/06
Betty Jo Tucker
Betty Jo Tucker
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

The actors and the filmmakers all take a more restrained approach than you might expect, keeping the humor gentle, and the jokes mostly as literary as the premise.

Full Review Source: NPR.org | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello
NPR.org

Stranger Than Fiction is not a fluff film. Far from it. Literate and engaging, it may parade around in nonsensical clothes, but just scratch the surface and a vast reservoir of post-modern existentialism is revealed.

Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Brandon Fibbs
BrandonFibbs.com

Will Ferrell is a more than worthy heir to Lemmon, Hanks, Brazil’s Jonathan Pryce and Something Wild’s Jeff Daniels.

Full Review Source: FilmStew.com | comment Comment
11/10/06
Brett Buckalew
Brett Buckalew
FilmStew.com

Some of Will Ferrell's biggest fans might find it overly tame and subtle, but it's interesting, enjoyable and a revelation to see he can keep his pants on and still entertain.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
12/03/08
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

Arguably one of Ferrell's finest two hours on film,

Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah) | comment Comment
11/21/06
Bruce Bennett
Bruce Bennett
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

This slightly fantastical, tragi-comic idea ended up in the care of precisely the right people.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
11/11/06
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

Hanging on a high concept never fully supported by its story, Stranger Than Fiction stays aloft thanks to an exceptionally appealing cast.

Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | comment Comment
11/10/06
Carla Meyer
Carla Meyer
Sacramento Bee

It may not be a masterpiece like [the writer's] new novel, but it's an entertaining story.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
11/27/06
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

as natural as milk and cookies

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
11/09/06
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Stranger Than Fiction is a movie that brims over with characters who are too complicated, prickly and interesting to fit within the boundaries of a conventional film.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
11/09/06
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Yes, Stranger Than Fiction is a head trip. But it's a very friendly one, and well crafted at that.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
11/09/06
Chris Vognar
Chris Vognar
Dallas Morning News
 
 
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