Mark Forster's STRANGER THAN FICTION

[mouton]

STRANGER THAN FICTION
Written by Zach Helm
Directed by Mark Forster


“Life is stranger than fiction,” or so the saying goes. Borrowing from the expression, Mark Forster’s STRANGER THAN FICTION is about one man’s life that has become the subject of soon-to-be published fiction. An as yet undetermined narrator announces at the very start that, “This is a story about a man named Harold Crick.” That narrator is revealed to be author Karen Eiffel (the always absorbing Emma Thompson), whose previous novels have all ended with her protagonists dying to serve the story’s greater purpose. Somehow, her voice has found its way from the pages that tell Harold’s story to the head of a man actually named Harold Crick (Will Ferrell). As she pushes through the novel that has taken her a decade to complete, Harold begins to hear her voice wherever he goes. As she points out his obsessive-compulsive behaviour, he begins to question the strict structure that has kept his life in order for years. When Eiffel announces that he is unknowingly spiraling towards his imminent death, he has heard enough. The funny thing is Harold’s death was imminent before someone told him it was. He just needed someone to remind him that he should probably get around to doing some living while he was still alive.

But is this actually a story about Harold Crick? Is it not just as much a story about Karen Eiffel? After all, she knows the story she is telling so well that her words and voice have torn some line in the fabric of the universe to make it into Harold’s head. I don’t know how likely that is in real life but I’m pretty sure it would never happen if there weren’t an intense cerebral connection between the two parties involved or if he weren’t a complete fabrication of one’s imagination. At first glance, Crick and Eiffel seem like people on entirely opposite ends of the spectrum. After a closer look, they are clearly in opposition to each other but they inhabit the very same spectrum. Both are shown as obsessive-compulsive people. Harold counts his brush strokes and goes to bed at exactly the same time each night. Karen lives a reclusive life in a starkly white apartment, extinguishing her cigarettes in spit-damp tissues she tucks away in her pockets. Both attempt to exert high levels of restraint in their lives to maintain the illusion that they command the direction their lives will take, one through chaos and the other through control. It is also a convenient way to avoid experiencing anything frighteningly unknown,

Eiffel struggles with how to kill Crick for most of the film. How do you kill someone to make a literary point when their life barely has any relevance to begin with? Meanwhile, Harold’s recent bout with schizophrenia has him seeing how the tiniest changes in his life can make it all the more exciting. Funny how the knowledge that death may be around the corner acts as a good kick in the ass. The connection between Crick and Eiffel also exposes their attitudes towards life and death while helping each of them heal their apprehensions towards both realities. Crick had conveniently eliminated the possibility of death from his calculated existence. Eiffel’s eerie fascination with death had stopped her from seeing her own possibilities for happiness in life. As the two become more aware of the other’s existence, and subsequently more comfortable with that, they each begin to see what they were not seeing prior. Life will not be and will never seem worth living if you don’t take risks, no matter how small they may be; from wearing a sweater instead of a tie for a change to stepping outside your apartment and meeting new people.

STRANGER THAN FICTION is smart without being superior, funny without being asinine. Forster’s previous work has either bored me (MONSTER’S BALL), frustrated me (STAY) or filled my heart with warmth and my eyes with tears (FINDING NEVERLAND). Here he creates a poignant piece about a woman telling the story of a man because its easier than telling her own story. Her real problem with killing Harold Crick is that she no longer knows if she wants to. Killing Harold would just mean metaphorically killing herself again. Writing Harold’s newfound appreciation for life has sparked her own and Forster hopes her reminder will be one to us as well. Not to sound too morbid but our deaths are as imminent as Harold’s. The film’s subtle layers expose a simple insight about the distance between our lives and the stories we tell about our lives. These stories are told to create meaning and give shape but we all run the risk of missing out in the process if we don’t allow for the unexpected.

[oscar jubis]

STRANGER THAN FICTION (2006)

Stranger Than Fiction is to Will Ferrell as The Truman Show is to Jim Carrey. It's a vehicle for Ferrell to exercise a different set of acting muscles, and perhaps expand his target audience.

(spoilers)

Stranger Than Fiction is also the debut of Zach Helm. He has written a pleasant and instructive tale about Harold, an automaton IRS-man who discovers he is a character in a book. He can hear the author narrating but doesn't know her identity. To that end, he seeks assistance from a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman). Meanwhile, neurotic, chain-smoker Kay Eiffel is suffering from writer's block, so the publisher sends Queen Latifah to help her finish the book. Harold uncovers who is her creator. He is terrified by the fact that Eiffel's previous, allegedly brilliant, novels end with the protagonist's death. A twist involving Harold's wristwatch grants him willpower. He makes lifestyle changes and embarks on a romance with Ana, a freewheeling bakery owner whose tax returns he is auditing. But Harold is primarily preoccupied with avoiding death.

Stranger Than Fiction has been called Charlie Kaufman-lite, mainly because it recalls Adaptation. The comparison is not benefitial to Helm because Stranger Than Fiction is not daring and original like the films penned by Mr. Kaufman. The meta-narrative facade hides a shopworn fable about self-realization and a conventional opposites-attract romance. As such, Stranger Than Fiction is worth-seeing. Ferrell acquaints himself well, exhibiting unusual restraint throughout. Ms. Thompson again puts her considerable acting chops on display. Maggie Gyllenhaal is consistently cute and charming as the liberal Ana. But Hoffman's professor exists primarily as a "plot mover", mainly as an authority to convince the audience that Eiffel's book is a tragic masterpiece (the narrated passages certainly don't offer such proof). Latifah's talents are wasted in a role that serves exclusively as a soundboard for the embittered Kay.

Marc Foster's direction is assured. I particularly liked the way he uses sparse sets and Chicago's architecture to convey the main characters' insularity (inspired by Playtime, Jacques Tati's masterpiece). The use of superimposed graphics to reproduce the protagonist's concrete thought processes is also quite effective. It's the script that disappoints. The problem doesn't rest solely on the under-imagined characterizations mentioned above. Once it's established that Harold is a character in Kay's novel, he seems to stop hearing her voice for no apparent reason. The film's premise is intriguing but, as it proceeds, Helm no longer adheres to its own internal logic. For instance, Kay actually "kills" Harold but, the ending has yet to manifest itself because it was merely handwritten. The script, and consequently the film, lacks rigor and conviction. The happy ending, in which Harold saves a child and survives, is extraneous to the film's worthy message. It condescends to conventional notions about what makes audiences feel good.

[Chris Knipp]

Spoiler.