Cory Massimino

Short Review: Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

October 28, 2020 by Cory

★★★★★

“Stranger than Fiction” combines the high-concept rom-com existentialism of Groundhog Day and the meta-textual postmodernism of Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation to create an unpredictable, quirky, and self-aware fable about the tension between the human desire to live each day of life to its fullest and the simultaneous human tendency to narrativize each day of life into some Life Story. How can you appreciate each day, each moment, of your life while also framing it in terms of storytelling (inciting incident, rising action, climax, etc.) that inherently (and perhaps arbitrarily) privilege some days and moments over others?

Will Ferrell as IRS agent Harold Crick is refreshingly restrained and subtle in his approach here, to such a degree that I really forgot I was watching the same guy from Elf, Step Brothers, Anchorman, etc. He sympathetically portrays a neurotic sad sack far more concerned with analyzing life than living it and his background in comedy really brings out all the dark humor embedded in the oddball premise of a man meeting the author of his own life. Maggie Gyllenhaal as Ana Pascal (talk about theological symbolism) is the rare hardworking, kind anarchist in a Hollywood movie and her zeal, creativity, and romanticism brings out an intimacy and passion never before felt in Harold.

Between the delightful absurdist humor, lovely budding romance, and occasional penetrating insight into the finiteness of the human condition, “Stranger Than Fiction” makes for one of the richest, most charming and introspective movies I’ve ever seen.

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