Stranger than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction promised to disappoint.

You might be surprised that I'd write that. After all, the movie was about a tortured writer meeting one of her characters - the sort of plot that would immediately appeal to an aspiring novelist like me. And it had Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson in the lead rolls, with support from lovable Dustin Hoffman. All recipes for success...

Except I had a feeling from the moment I saw the trailer that I'd be disappointed. Marketed as a comedy, I figured Stranger Than Fiction would be another terribly worthy movie with it's humour buried beneath a carpet of angsty character development. Think Royal Tennenbaums and you'll get the picture.

But as the saying goes, never judge a book by it's cover. Even if the book is actually a movie. About a book. In short, Stranger Than Fiction was brilliant.

From it's opening moments, Stranger Than Fiction was witty, sharp and a visual treat. It used a fantastic 'heads up display' to illustrate the utterly mundane thoughts of lead character Harold Crick, played absolutely deadpan by a brilliant Will Ferrell. As a friendless, loveless IRS agent in Manhattan, his life was utterly without purpose or pleasure until he started hearing this voice in his head, narrating his life; "accurately," he describes it, "and with a better vocabulary."

Seeking help from literary professor Dustin Hoffman, Crick soon discovers that he's living in a novel - being written by acclaimed writer Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson.) This doesn't bode well for Harold, since Kay's famous for killing off her lead characters.

With his sudden demise looming, Harold starts to look within himself, discovering hidden ambitions and feelings that only spring to the surface now he realises he'll never achieve them. He falls helplessly in love with a militant hippy baker (played by gorgeous Maggie Gyllenhaal) and learns to play the guitar, squeezing as much life out of his last few days as he can.

But while Harold is obsessed with living his life, Kay Eiffel is obsessed with ending it. She desperately tries to create the perfect ending for Harold's life totally oblivious to the fact that he's a real person... Until Crick picks up the phone and calls her, pleading with the novelist to spare his life now he's started living it.

It's a sharp, witty film. The dialogue is crisp and you'll be snorting with laughter at several points. But the movie's also sweet, sad and poignant. It's an immensely satisfying package, all wrapped up, and proof that when you have a great idea, a great director and great actors - Hollywood won't necessarily screw it up.