… Sort of. I don’t tend to have favourites. I find the idea of seeing something and classing it as better than anything you have ever seen, and perhaps anything you will ever see a little depressing, not to mention pointless. So many different emotions go into liking something, whether it’s a film or a book or some other piece of art (I also feel uncomfortable with the term “art”. It sounds alarmingly like I know what I’m talking about.), that I don’t think it’s very honest to call something your favourite. Yes, there is a difference between liking something and thinking of it as exceptional, but that feeling you get from something truly amazing is unlikely to be limited to one particular film. If it is, you probably haven’t seen enough. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the ways in which certain stories that I see or read affect me, and it’s immediately obvious that it is a lot more complicated than seeing something and thinking “I love this!” therefore making the immediate announcement of it as “my favourite!” seem a little shallow.
That said, Stranger Than Fiction is one of the best films I have ever seen. The film tells the story of a lonely IRS agent, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), who ones day wakes up with the voice of a British woman in his head, narrating his every day life and speaking of thoughts he had never admitted to anybody. Despite this considerable problem, he tries to continue with his life, auditing a baker called Anna Pascal (Maggie Glynenhaall). Continues, that is, until the narrator in his head informs him that “…Little did he know that this simple, seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death.”
Meanwhile reclusive author of famous tragedies, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) is struggling with writer’s block, as she cannot work how to kill her supposedly fictional main character, Harold Crick. As such she is forced to accept the help of an assistant (Queen Latifah), unwanted by Karen as she feels she cannot be helped “by you, a woman who never thinks of jumping off buildings”. She’s a little odd, but we love her. Not knowing the source of his problem, Harold seeks the help of literary mind Professer Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) in order to attempt to save his life.
Stranger Than Fiction is an endlessly inspiring film set in the perhaps surprisingly wonderful city of Chicago. Strong vertical lines run throughout the backdrop of the film, with square shapes creating a world that appeals directly to Harold’s mathematical thinking. Harold Crick, a beautifully understated Will Ferrel, is able through the narrator in his head to escape his monotonous lifestyle and fight the path that fate (or perhaps Karen Eiffel) has set out for him. The film shows a great love of clever stories. Its every action describes the constant search many of us are on for something more than that which our every day life is providing. The film works on the basis that, to paraphrase Jane Austen, if a person is destined to be a hero, nothing will prevent him, something must and will happen to throw a heroine, or a whole new way of life, in his way. Harold Crick is able to break out of his mundane existence, do all that he ever wanted to. Learn the guitar, stop the boring job, go to the cinema alone, get the girl. To learn, finally that “you’re never too old to go to space camp, dude.” With this the very environment of the story begins to change. Though the now characteristic vertical lines remain, softening curves are introduced, particularly around the world of Anna Pascal, creating a stark contrast between the very sets on which Harold has been living his life.
Harold: You have to understand this isn’t a philosophy or a literary theory – it’s my life.
Professor Hilbert: Exactly. So just go and make it the one you always wanted.
It is the background elements that make this film quite what it is to me. The dark grey day contrasted by a bright yellow umbrella, Professor Hilbert’s constant eating and bare feet and Emma Thompson’s wonderfully strange portrayal of Karen Eiffel create the bizarre, real, hilarious, ironic, foreboding and tragic atmosphere of the film.
The search for Karen Eiffel progresses suddenly, Harold Crick finding her far too late. The ending, his death, finished, but not yet typed. Karen’s subsequent freak out and Harold giving the book to Professor Hilbert to study, to look for any possible way out is heartbreaking. Harold reads the ending himself, and loves it. His end is beautiful, meaningful and poetic and he accepts it.
The book would be Karen Eiffel’s masterpiece. If she can finish it, and in doing so, finish Harold’s life.
“Dramatic irony, it’ll fuck you every time.”
