Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
- Genres: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
- Rating IMDb: 75
- Year: 2006
- Duration: 1:53
Summaries
I.R.S. auditor Harold Crick suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.
Everybody knows that your life is a story. But what if a story was your life? Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is your average I.R.S. Agent: monotonous, boring, and repetitive. But one day this all changes when Harold begins to hear an author inside of his head narrating his life. The narrator it is extraordinarily accurate, and Harold recognizes the voice as an esteemed author he saw on television. But when the narration reveals that he is going to die, Harold must find the author of the story, and ultimately his life, to convince her to change the ending of the story before it is too late.
For twelve years, methodical I.R.S. Agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) has had a routine lonely life guided by his wristwatch. However, one day he hears the narration of his life in off, telling that he is going to die pretty soon. Meanwhile, he audits Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), the owner of a bakery that is in debt with the I.R.S., and falls in love for her. Harold is advised by Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) to change his monotonous lifestyle while he tries to find Karen Eiffel (Dame Emma Thompson), the author of the story of his life, who is researching means of killing the character, and convince her to change the ending of the story.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), an I.R.S. Agent, leads a highly regimented, routinized, and solitary life, having few friends besides his co-worker Dave (Tony Hale). Suffering from O.C.D., he has a habit of counting things, like the number of times he brushes each tooth, and the number of steps it takes to get to the bus stop for his daily commute. Because of these issues, he is highly dependent upon his watch, to which he refers often, but which he otherwise does not consciously consider. Despite his nature, he hates his job. One day while he is brushing his teeth, he hears the bodiless voice of an English woman eloquently narrating what seems to be his story as he is acting it out. The story not only includes his actions, but what his innermost thoughts and feelings are at the time. The voice comes and goes over time, Harold not knowing the full story based on the missing parts. Not knowing what to do, he brushes the voice aside until the voice says, "little did he know... would result in his imminent death." Knowing that he is not schizophrenic, which is the medical diagnosis, Harold turns to literature Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who becomes Harold's sole confidante in the matter. Hilbert agrees to help him through the literary side of the matter, solely because the voice used the literary convention of "little did he know". Trying to go against the norm in his life partly based on Hilbert's advice, Harold begins to court Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a baker who he is auditing, who detests the very thought of him, but about whom he nonetheless cannot stop thinking. In reality, the voice in question belongs to famed novelist, chain-smoking, and nervous Karen Eiffel (Dame Emma Thompson), who is under great pressure from her publisher as she has not written anything in ten years due to writer's block. Her books always end with the lead character dying. Harold's story is slowly coming together, but she has not yet worked out how he will die. Harold's fate seems to be in Karen's typing hands, as his story plays out exactly when she types it out. The primary questions then become if Hilbert and Harold can find out that it is Karen writing the story, if so, if Harold can locate her, if so, if Karen will believe his story, and if so, if she will change her artistic vision to save Harold's life, or conversely if the fate between Karen's typewriter and Harold's life can somehow otherwise be broken.
Sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes life imitates art. When a voice begins narrating every moment, mathematically obsessed Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) becomes distressed and concerned. He begins to be fearful, however, when it mentions his soon to be death and sets out to fix it.