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Movies / On DVD / Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction

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Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

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Reviews Counted:164

Fresh:119

Rotten:45

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.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Nov 10, 2006 Wide

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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Release:

Feb 27, 2007

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Reviews for Stranger Than Fiction

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"Stranger Than Fiction" is a sterile and pedantic comedy that tells much more than it shows.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
08/29/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Suggests how cleverness can suffocate people

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/28/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Forster lards over his whimsically feeble film with sentimentality.

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

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

It could have been great. But it's just okay.

Full Review Source: DVD Review | comment Comment
12/02/08
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review

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

The movie’s unforgivable logical flaws and gummy platitudes don’t sink it...thanks to Ferrell’s fine and humane performance.

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Jonathan Kiefer
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review

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

The place where the film runs into problems is in trying to decide, like Harold, as to whether or not it is a comedy or a tragedy. As we know, comedy sells much better and that's the direction the film leans.

Full Review Source: KPBS.org | comment Comment
09/22/07
Beth Accomando
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org

Though there are enough interesting moments to keep it refreshing, Mr. Helm's script never rises above its conceit to reach the giddy Charlie Kaufman heights to which it aspires.

Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
07/14/07
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

No es ni una comedia, ni una tragedia, ni una historia de amor, ni una fábula. Es ni más ni menos que una idea original mal desarrollada, que no entretiene lo suficiente y que conduce a ninguna parte.

Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | comment Comment
04/17/07
Enrique Buchichio
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

Stranger Than Fiction never rises above its eye-catching premise, ending up as nothing more than a great idea with absolutely nowhere to go.

Full Review Source: UGO | comment Comment
03/24/07
Brian Tallerico
Brian Tallerico
UGO

An endearing comedy about the spiritual transformation of a rigid, shy, and lonely I.R.S. agent whose life is upended by forces beyond his control.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
03/06/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Stranger Than Fiction has a self-regard that can grate, but Ferrell and Thompson give winning performances that suggest the film's aim is true.

Full Review Source: Reeler | comment Comment
02/09/07
Michelle Orange
Michelle Orange
Reeler

An uncommonly plastic bit of Hallmark sentiment-mongering, with exactly the kind of New Age psychobabble ending you’d expect.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
02/03/07
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

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

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

It's a shame that Stranger Than Fiction doesn't quite sustain its premise, but it's so entertaining that you might not even notice.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
01/24/07
Jette Kernion
Jette Kernion
Cinematical

A concept film, but wow, what a concept!

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
01/13/07
Uri Lessing
Uri Lessing
eFilmCritic.com

Consegue desenvolver sua história de forma sempre interessante e com uma sensibilidade que certamente surpreenderá aqueles que forem ao cinema esperando assistir a uma comédia (algo que este longa não é).

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
01/11/07
Pablo Villaca
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
 
 
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