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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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141 - 160 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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There are a handful of really nice moments in Fiction, and almost none of them have to do with Helm's outrageous setup.

Full Review Source: Planet Sick-Boy | comment Comment
11/09/06
Jon Popick
Jon Popick
Planet Sick-Boy

[Stranger than Fiction] teems with ideas both literary and existential, which might make it unbearably precious, were it not redeemed by woozy charm and some serious acting from Will Ferrell.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
11/09/06
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

A fantasy, so it's not obligated to be logical, but it should at least have internal logic and follow its own set of rules. A failure to do so untethers the film.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment 4 Comments
11/09/06
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

Cute title, but a snappy opening dissolves into a relatively simplistic tale of a wet noodle learning to stand up for himself.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
11/09/06
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

Despite its pretensions to be unusual, oddly imitative and ordinary...less like a story you find clever and surprising than like a book you've read before.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
11/09/06
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Will Ferrell in a reserved, highbrow comedy? Now that is Stranger Than Fiction.

Full Review Source: Sean the Movie Guy | comment Comment
11/08/06
Sean McBride
Sean McBride
Sean the Movie Guy

Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson give brilliant performances in this metaphysical, Kafkaesque dilemma...far too deep to be viewed as a frivolous comedy.

Full Review Source: tonymedley.com | comment Comment
11/08/06
Tony Medley
Tony Medley
tonymedley.com

There's no denying the movie has a surface allure.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
11/08/06
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

...a clever ode to creative constipation on par with Charlie Kaufman's 'Adaptation' (to which it owes a great debt).

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
11/08/06
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

[The] performances succeed where Harold fails: gaining a life independent of their author.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
11/07/06
Jim Ridley
Jim Ridley
Village Voice

A striking implosion of incongruent themes.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
11/06/06
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly

The movie is clever, but a little too pleased with its own clockwork intricacy.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
11/06/06
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine

Crisp, eccentric and exhilarating.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
11/06/06
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It takes a great premise and runs with it, neither wasting opportunities nor going off on tangents. It features strong work from both the main and supporting actors, and manages seamlessly to incorporate both humor and poignancy.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
11/06/06
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

A jaunty little existential oddity.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
11/05/06
Joshua Tyler
Joshua Tyler
CinemaBlend.com

A fresh and original fantasy love story entertainment that will arouse all the literary DNA we possess.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
11/05/06
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

Ferrell doesn't give his typical over-the-top performance here, but rather creates a terrific, understated character that produces a huge amount of empathy and likeability.

Full Review Source: Beaumont Journal | comment Comment
11/03/06
Danny Minton
Danny Minton
Beaumont Journal

This is a Ferrell you've never seen before, nailing a role that calls for breakneck humor in the final race against the clock and touching gravity in the love scenes with Gyllenhaal.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
11/02/06
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The film struggles under its increasingly weighty pretensions to literary credibility and even tragic status, stumbling towards an unconvincing and cloying conclusion.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
10/28/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Brilliantly written, thoughtful and frequently hilarious comedy with impressive direction and terrific performances from the entire cast.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/28/06
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
 
 
141 - 160 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
all

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