Stranger Than Fiction [DVD] [2006]

Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) lives a boring life. He has no friends or social life. He works as an auditor for the IRS. He's so boring that he counts the number of times he brushes his teeth in the morning and the number of steps he takes.

All that changes one Wednesday. When he wakes up that morning, he hears a voice narrating his every action. Of course, this creeps him out, and his co-workers begin to notice his odd behavior. But things get even worse on his way home from work when the voice predicts his imminent death.

Harold doesn't relish that idea, so he begins to look for help with his problem. Eventually, he comes in contact with English professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who tries to help him figure out what to do from a literary standpoint.

Meanwhile, famed novelist Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is trying to figure out how to end her latest book, DEATH AND TAXES. She's got everything except how to kill off her main character, Harold Crick.

As far as I can remember, I've only seen one other Will Ferrell movie. Most of the previews look too over the top for my taste. This one intrigued me, however, so I set aside my prejudices and went to see it. I'm glad I did.

To be honest, I expected a funnier movie. This isn't Ferrell's normal over the top gag fest. It is funny, and I laughed through most of it. Just not as often as I thought I would.

That's because there's an underlying pathos to the story. Facing death, Harold realizes that he's never really lived. This gives him the boldness to go for some things he's always wanted to do and make some friends. The performances by the entire cast wonderfully walk the balance between the comedy and the more elements of the film.

Yeah, there were scenes that could have been funnier, but I like the final product. It's a great mix of comedy and drama that kept me entertained for the full two hours.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go hang out with my friends.

Truly enjoyable little oddball film. Well mixed part comedy part drama that is funny, warm and thought provoking at the same time.

Will Ferrell gives his best performance by far as a man who notices that he's a character in somebodys book. This time his true comedic abilities to make subtle comedy come to reality. Well balanced effort by him. He is really funny when needed and also convincing when more drama. This time he's acting and not just goofing around. Perhaps his best role so far - haven't seen all his films but many his earlier comedies show certain tendencies to "goof" around.

Maggie Gyllenhaal should have earned academy award nomination for actress in a supporting role for her performance as Ana Pascal. She's one of the most talented young actresses in Hollywood today. Great effort by her. There some magnificent strength in her acting - things do happen when she's on screen.

Dustin Hoffman is good as always. He's actually hilarious ans so is Emma Thompson, but in a different way.

This still might not be for everyones taste. Like I said, a bit of an oddball film, strange in many ways which I personally like. Does take an different look at the reality. If you don't like "strange" films like "the Royal Tenenbaums" for example, you probably end up hating this. I for one liked "the Royal Tenenbaum" a lot and found very similar qualities in this one, so for me this one was a treat.

Not necessarily like any other film out there and has its own aura, so really no need to compare thhis film to any other film out there. Have to say, that I come out of the theater elevated.

In my mind, one of the best I saw in the year 2006. I will revisit this movie in the near future - that's a promise.

Stranger Than Fiction is the story of Harold Crick; a maths genius who's working for the IRS. He's got to audit a beautiful baker, Ana Pascal, but he's got an annoying problem: he's got a female narrator following him around. Things get worse for Crick when she announces he'll die, and his only hope is a professor to save him, but the big mistake he's made is he's forgotten to free himself.

Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson are amazing in this film, Farrell showing that he can do serious roles as well as be very funny (Anchorman, Starsky And Hutch, just to name a few), and Thompson with her typical English Rose flair. I also enjoyed Queen Latifah's role, often overlooked by many and has redeemed her from her poor role in Taxi and Bringing Down The House. If you're expecting a lot of comical moments, then you won't be disappointed, but it's not a comedy as per say, and the bottom line is that it's more of a love story.

The blu-ray is a delight, beautiful colours and well produced by Sony (but what would we expect, this is their format?) - with it's crystal clear uncompressed PCM audio, 4.5mbps constant, and the 1.85:1 is quite nice too, as it's full screen for 16:9 displays. The video is 1080p and runs at a steady 25Mbps - which is pretty good. The blu-ray disk is the full BD50, which is great too, as you get ALL the extras from the DVD edition.

Talking about the extras, you get quite a few too: Actors in Search of Story, Building the Team, Words on a Page, On Location in Chicago, On the Set and Picture a Number: The Evolution of a GUI are excellent featurettes. There's also deleted scenes and an extended scene, and the trailer too.

If you love this film, have blu-ray, stop reading this and buy, you're in for a treat and is a flagship blu-ray release. If you like the film, then also consider renting this, it's an example to all the film companies on how to produce decent blu-ray releases.

4/5 for the film, 5/5 for the HD transfer