26 Dec 2006

Stranger than Fiction

Director: Marc Foster

Starring: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Jake Gyllenhaal

Awards: Best Original Screenplay, National Board of Review

Release: 2006-12-26

The aptly-titled Stranger than Fiction may draw less of an audience, but it's no less interesting than the other three films we recommended. It's a trippy, mind-boggling film in the vein of films written by Charlie Kaufman like Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.

Will Ferrell plays a man who lives his life like clockwork. He goes to work at the same time every morning, brushes his teeth with the same number of strokes and goes to sleep at 11.13 pm every night. One day, he hears a voice in his head narrating his boring, everyday activities. He is completely freaked out, thinking he's gone mad.

He visits a shrink who suggests he may be schizophrenic, but Will later discovers that the narration is the voice of a hermetic writer (Emma Thompson) who will eventually choose to kill off her character, as she often does. In other words, he is about to die. Thus begins Will's frantic attempt to savor what could be the last moments of his life...

Yes, the plot is strange. But the film is actually rather good. Ultimately, it carries the message that one should live life to the fullest and make every moment count, because one may never know when it'll all end.

If you're in the mood for smart, experimental film, this is your best bet.