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Stranger Than Fiction | 
 enlarge | Director: Marc Forster
Actors: Will Ferrell, Queen Latifah, Peter Grosz, Ricky Adams, Christian Stolte
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy Used: $0.95
You Save: $13.99 (94%)
New (59) Used (641) from $0.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  294 reviews
Sales Rank: 436
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 113
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 15407
UPC: 001686187702
EAN: 0072438369622
ASIN: B000LXH0AE
Theatrical Release Date: November 10, 2006
Release Date: February 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to effect his entire life from his work to his love-interest to his death.System Requirements:Running Time: 113 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 043396154070 Manufacturer No: 15407
Amazon.com
Much was written about Will Ferrell's first "dramatic role" as Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who begins hearing a voice narrating his life. But Stranger Than Fiction is hardly a drama. However, what Ferrell does--like Jim Carrey before him in The Truman Show--is handle a toned-down character with genuineness and affection: you believe he is this guy. Crick leads a lonely life filled with numbers and routines. While at first he considers the voice a nuisance, Crick decides more action is needed when it speaks of "his demise." Enter Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who takes on the absurd notion with revelry, trying to find out what kind of book Crick's life is leading. It turns out that the voice Crick is hearing belongs to Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a very real--and troubled--author who is writing a book in which Crick is a fictional character. As usual with these things, the stuffed shirt learns to live a better life--Crick even falls for one of his audits, a brash baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Marc Foster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) has the right tone for the film, using great urban scenes (the unnamed city is Chicago) with interesting visualizations of Crick's world of numbers. He also directs Ferrell, Hoffman, and Gyllenhaal to their most charming performances (plus Linda Hunt and Tom Hulce pop up in two funny scenes). Ferrell succeeds in being a romantic lead you can root for; a scene where he eats Ana's freshly baked cookies is totally delightful without a hint of sarcasm. Screenwriter Zach Helm has two personal traits with his story: like Crick he followed his heart (he stopped rewriting scripts and only worked on his own) and like Eiffel, the final results are not a masterpiece, but good, and entertaining enough. Britt Daniel of the band Spoon worked on the dynamite soundtrack.--Doug Thomas
Extras from Stranger Than Fiction 
"Counting Brush Strokes," A featurette
on the filming of Stranger Than Fictionhigh bandwidth
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Tax Man!:
A clip from the film
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Queen Latifah on working with Emma Thompson
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Stills from Stranger Than Fiction (click for larger image) Beyond Stranger Than Fiction on Amazon.com 
Comic Actors Go Dramatic | 
CD Soundtrack | 
Emma Thompson Essentials |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 289 more reviews...
 Fantastic November 26, 2008
I was pleasantly surspised by this movie! Will Ferell did a wonderful job. He was shickingly serious but still commical. I had heard about this movie from varous people and my friend happened to have it and I watched and now I'm in love with this movie. Maggie Gyllenhal does a great job in this as well. Great movie!
clever and fascinating November 25, 2008
The story starts with Emma Thompson's voice narrating an ordinary morning in IRS agent Harold Crick's (Will Ferrell) life, a perfectly normal beginning to a movie, until he looks confused and looks around, and the voice stops, then resumes. He's hearing a voice narrating his life, and naturally, it causes a lot of havoc.
He tries to ignore it, but the strain starts to show, so a co-worker gives him the "easier" of two audits--a baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Of course, it's not easier, because the baker is not only a free spirit who'd dropped out of law school to become a baker and who's refusing to pay the percentage of her taxes pertaining to the defense budget, but he's also extremely attracted to her.
Harold consults a psychiatrist, though he's sure he's not crazy, then a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), who after initial resistance, finds the problem fascinating. Turns out Harold Crick is the main character in novelist Kay Eiffel's (Emma Thompson) latest book, and he's screwed, because she always kills her main character in the end.
Ms. Eiffel, meanwhile, is suffering from writer's block, and her publisher sends an assistant (Queen Latifah) to help prod her along.
It's such a clever, fascinating story--the collision of fiction and real life, and it's twisted just a little differently from other stories I've read about fictional characters coming to life, though maybe I just haven't read the right stories. What makes it wonderful, though, is that that isn't all there is to the story.
There's also the love story between Harold and the baker, which was sweet and believable. Her free spirit is a perfect foil for his regimented existence. He makes missteps that aren't silly or cliched, but rather in line with his character, and she reacts in character as well. Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal bring the characters to life so convincingly you forget they're just acting.
There's the story of the author's writer's block and her attempts to foil it--standing at the edge of her desk trying to imagine jumping from a tall building, and the hilarious scene from the previews when she's going through the hospital looking for dying people. The assistant's calm but determined demeanor works so well with the author who's alternately stuck inside her head and going off on flights of fancy. Again, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah are just perfect in the roles.
And the whole thing makes Harold reevaluate his life, which in turn makes the audience think, and we discussed it for days afterward. My men enjoyed it as much as I did.
Don't miss this movie. November 22, 2008
Found this movie by accident.Really great story line, acting and sound track. Think it is Will Ferrell's best work yet.A good romantic comedy!
A metaphor for modern life-thumbs up! October 15, 2008
I was hesitant to watch Will Farrell in this film, but was pleasantly surprised. My favorite line of the movie was when Emma Thompson, the writer says something like, if you set out to kill the guy in the story, and the guy wants to change the outcome, wants he finds out he will die, shouldn't those be the guys you keep alive? It speaks to those people who believe in fate, vs a predefined outcome to their lives, and the film overall is a great metaphor for not letting "life pass you by", in lieu of routine and monotony.
All of the characters are well developed and the chemistry is fantastic. I love Maggie and Dustin in these roles, and Emma Thompson as usual, is standout, as she is faced with her writer's block, and struggles with writing a tragedy vs a comedy. The film also reminds us what things are important in life, and how our behavior would/would not change if faced with sudden death. Although most people would anticipate a comedy, when Will Farrel is involved, this film, laces realism with a provocative challenge of examining our lives in a more "aware" state of mind. Not what I expected-recommend for a night of reflection, laughter and consideration.
 Stranger Than Fiction October 13, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This video played to a crucial point and then IT QUIT. This was a birthday present for my daughter. We had to drive to the video store and rent it so she could see the end. The seller did reimburse us for the video, but we had to pay for the shipping. I will never buy a used video from Amazon again.
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