From the moment I saw the first trailer for this film, I thought I would enjoy it. After I watched it this afternoon, I was wrong about one thing: I actually enjoyed it more than I anticipated.

I've had mixed feelings about Will Ferrell in the past. I loved him in "Elf" and "Wedding Crashers" and on "Saturday Night Live" but couldn't stand him in "Anchorman."

Emma Thompson, on the other hand, has always been one of my favorites from her writing and acting in such films as "Howard's End", "Sense and Sensibility" to her recent masterpiece "Nanny McPhee."

And, of course, this film has Dustin Hoffman, certainly one of the greatest actors ever with such classics as "The Graduate", "Rain Man", "Little Big Man", "Tootsie", "Midnight Cowboy" and "Kramer v. Kramer."

But great actors themselves don't necessarily make a great movie. They have to be aided and abetted by skillful direction and intelligent writing. And, that's exactly what we have in "Stranger Than Fiction." Director Marc Forster ("Finding Neverland", "Monster's Ball") has put together that rare story that has both great comic moments, suspense, and pathos. And first time script writer Zach Helm has created an instant masterpiece of funny, intelligent, and imaginative storytelling.

THE PLOT

While the movie has elements of "truth and fiction" that existed in "Truman", I found this story more compelling. In the very first scene, we meet Harold Crick (Ferrell), the ultimate nerd IRS agent brushing his teeth the exact number of strokes on each side of his mouth. We here the voice of a stranger basically narrate each and every movement of Crick as he moves through his extraordinarily boring and monotonous life. The catch here is that Crick also hears the voice but no one else does. The voice is that of a woman who turns out to be a famous author, Kay Eiffel, who is suffering from writer's block.

As Crick moves through a typical day in the life of an IRS auditor, he becomes more and more agitated by the narrator in his head. His associates at the IRS (he really has only one friend) start to notice that he is behaving oddly and so he is sent to a shrink. Crick ends up conferring with a "literary" expert, Professor Jules Hilbert (Hoffman) who decides that Crick is indeed a character in a book. He and Crick set out to determine who the author is.

Into all his troubles, confirmed bachelor Crick meets a lady baker that he is auditing, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal ("World Trade Center", "Secretary"). There first meeting is filled with dislike on the part of Ana of this strange "government agent" but Crick finds that he has feelings for her that he doesn't understand. Of course, Kay keeps narrating various aspects of his life including the budding romance between Ana and Crick.

That's enough about the story. By the end of the film, which has several comic moments, the movie turns both serious and sentimental.

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE FILM

Obviously, I liked the acting from the main characters through all the fine supporting roles (which include another fine performance from Queen Latifah as Kay Eiffel's assistant and the two guys on the Sonic commercials that appear several times in the film.

During the first part of the film, as we examine the incredibly boring life of Crick which is dominated by numbers, there are some clever graphics that show the variety of numbers that flow through Crick's head. From the mundane such as Crick counting his footsteps to mathematical exercises that he can perform, we see numbers on the screen in a truly original format.

The original music from Britt Daniel and Brian Reitzell also fits perfectly into the film with the proper sounds for each scene.

Finally, I truly enjoyed the writing which was clever and original. I laughed several times in the film but many of the funny moments were very subtle. The narration was amusing and the dialogue between all the characters was realistic.

I think this was the best performance by Will Ferrell that I have ever seen. While he is a gifted "physical" comic, he shows in this film that he can also act without pratfalls.

I heartily recommend this movie. FIVE STARS

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older