Stranger than Fiction
I've been looking forward to this movie for a while. It has the potential and ambition to be another Eternal Sunshine or Adaptation, but it could also be a horrible art house dud or frustrated comedian vanity project. Most likely it will fall somewhere in between, and probably closer to failure then success.
Well, I am happy to report that it was pretty good. Will Farrell's performance was not over-acted and he never took you out of the moment (which is the biggest risk in casting a scene-stealing big name star comedian to your quirky dramedy.) He was... subtle. Careful and reflective. The people around him got to do most of the acting (Maggie and Dusty were much bigger personalities) and his character was mostly conveyed by the voice over narration and the special effect inserts that were meant to convey his neurosis and OCD. I think movies need to be praised sometimes for the missteps they avoided, for resisting the urge to fall into cliche or milk tired stereotypes, and this movie avoided several. I'm happy to say Will Farrell did not ruin this movie at all.
That is not to say that it was without flaws. The crazy plot started to unravel a bit in the end when, even after everyone figured out (but never explained) the god-like power that the author had over this guys life, they still insisted that it was better off to continue along and let him die because it was such a good story (?!?) Yeah. The take notice of your life and do the things you always wanted to themes were presented quit nicely but this movie completely chickened out at addressing any of the free will v.s. destiny issues it raised with the crazy premise. The result is a weaker story and an ending that feels tacked on. It may have just as easily worked as a mid-life crisis and a boy-meets-girl generic romantic comedy since they never really did anything with the character in a work of fiction plot other then jolt him out of his comfort zone and threaten to kill him. Seems like they could have achieved that by borrowing the plot of a different Queen Litafah movie and having a doctor tell him he had 3 weeks to live. It didn't aspire to anything more then quirky romantic comedy.
In the end I have to say I enjoyed it. It worked as a quirky romantic comedy (where the characters fall in love just because they are supposed to, and not due to chemistry or anything really besides proximity and a few nice gestures). Maggie Gyllenhaal was good, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thomspson are ok, the movie had a good pace and a few twists and turns. It didn't live up to its potential, but it didn't crash and burn either.
1 comment:
It was a cute movie. Will looked great but it was just ahiight for me this time, dawg.
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