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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:36

Fresh:25

Rotten:11

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 - 13 (sorted by date; 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
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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
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Screenwriter Zach Helm's comedy has some quirky points, but it's very sugary and sentimental, and feeble compared to the work of those who have done the same sort of thing better: Woody Allen or Charlie Kaufman.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
12/30/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
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It might be Charlie Kaufman lite, but this is a great date movie for the discerning - smart, ingenious and heartwarming.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
11/29/06
Ian Freer
Ian Freer
Empire Magazine
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Besides being inventive and witty, Stranger Than Fiction is a tribute to the power of literature. But art is not its only domain. It also delves into the world of ultimate certainties: death and taxes.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
11/10/06
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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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
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Stranger Than Fiction is a meditation on life, art and romance, and on the kinds of responsibility we have. Such an uncommonly intelligent film does not often get made.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/10/06
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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For all of the film's narrative intricacies, it's love in bloom that carries the day.

Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | comment Comment
11/09/06
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
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It manages to be smart and surprising and provides this season of serious movies with a much-needed shot of whimsy.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
11/09/06
Kevin Crust
Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
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It's not the original story we signed up for -- or thought we did.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
11/09/06
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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Crisp, eccentric and exhilarating.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
11/06/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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It remains inventive and funny to the end, features fine performances from Will Ferrell and especially Emma Thompson, and offers enough to enjoy and dispute to make it a good B.O. attraction.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/12/06
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
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1 - 13 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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