Stranger Than Fiction |  | Director: Marc Forster
Actors: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy Used: $0.70
as of 2/10/2010 10:16 EST details
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Seller: GFMEDIA
Rating:  330 reviews
Sales Rank: 1595
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: COLD15407D
UPC: 079404344102
EAN: 0079404344102
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 NARRATIONONLY HE CAN HEAR: NARRATION THAT BEGINS TO AFFECT HIS ENTIRELIFE, FROM HIS WORK, TO HIS LOVE-INTEREST, TO HIS DEATH.
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:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 330
 A favorite February 4, 2010
Quiza (Scottsdale, AZ)
This is one of my favorite movies. Yes, it is a bit weird. I liked that. And the characters are beyond great. They are all quirky in entirely different ways. Emma Thompson, as the tortured author, was, to me, astounding. Will Ferrell's understated performance (SO unlike most of his stuff!) made his emotions - when they finally surfaced - just that much more aching. And Dustin Hoffman, with his matter-of-fact (okay - ruthless) assessment of Ferrell's plight was almost shocking in its coldness.
This is a movie where people change, because their lives touch. An emotional thriller, a comedy, a drama, a rollercoaster - all rolled into a movie that is content to appear unassuming. A true feel-good movie.
Not your typical Will Ferrell movie January 21, 2010
Keith A. Gicker
For common fans of Will Ferrell, I could easily see how this movie would fall vastly short of their expectations. However, make no mistake...this is arguably his best movie, as he shows some decent range and emotion in a well written and portrayed script. As a man who awakes to find that he is a character in his own story and relegated to the role of puppet for his narrator, he has ample opportunity to display his comedic talents while branching into territory that would warrant him some acting praise beyond that of his typical cookie-cutter slapstick comedies. I must admit, I am not one who closely follows the latest of his Anchorman sequels (that of course being Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, Blades of Glory, etc.)...as I said earlier, his comedies usually follow that same strain of comedy. However, this clear detachment from his status quo warrants some close attention of any that would enjoy a good movie which blends themes of comedy, love, drama, and self discovery. This movie is a perfect example of the fact that comedies can carry some wit and depth and still make for not only a good comedy, but a good movie in general!
Easily one of my Favorite movies January 7, 2010
Roger Bethell
I love this movie; I'm not usually the type to watch old movies over and over because i could simply use that time to watch a new movie. But i have seen this movie many times; and thought enough of it to want to add it to my collection.
A great movie January 7, 2010
D. Palmer
I had heard good and bad about this movie so I wasn't sure what to expect. I watched it and really liked it. I think it was one of Will Ferrell's best performances. It was funny and different from any movie I had ever seen.
Worth wathcing for sure!
Restrained acting makes this effective December 12, 2009
Alan A. Elsner (Washington DC)
Harold, played with great restraint by Will Ferrell, is one of those obsessive-compulsive types who live lonely boring lives of desperation. He brushes his teeth using the exact same number of strokes each day, knots his tie the same way and catches the same bus on the way to his boring job at the IRS.
One day, Harold hears a voice in his head -- a woman's voice with an English accent, Emma Thompson's voice in fact -- narrating his life as it happens. "Little did he know," the voice intones, "that Harold's actions have put him on a course to his own death."
The acting in this movie is uniformly good with Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Maggie Gyllenhaal all contributing. Ferrell is better here than I've ever seen him; he makes us see the true goodness of his character buried deeply beneath the facade and his yearning to live. The premise is interesting and the movie asks some important questions: what is more important, life or literature? How do you live a life to make it worth living? We learn that Thompson is a famous author wrestling with writer's block and a life almost as empty as Harold's. But this movie never gets freighted down with philosophy as it barrels along to its satisfying conclusion.
Well worth an evening in front of the boob tube....
Showing reviews 1-5 of 330
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