Stranger Than Fiction- Best Movie This Year

Will Ferrell delivered the performance of his life in the movie “Stranger Than Fiction.” It is also hands down, the best movie to hit the screens this year. Will Ferrell plays the part of Harold Crick, an IRS auditor with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who leads a lonely, although structured life. But when he begins to hear a narration in his head, one that predicts that he is going to die, he struggles to find happiness and love in a futile effort to stave off his fate.

This is a dark romantic comedy that makes wonderful use of special effects to explore the quirks and mathematical computations that chronically fill Harold’s head. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the role of Ana Pascal, a beautiful local baker and Harold’s ‘polar opposite’ love interest. Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifa also star and deliver wonderful, subdued performances.

The movie is wonderfully directed by Marc Forster, who also did Finding Neverland. His directing style really got “out of the way” of a wonderful story and quirky plot, but also powerfully displayed the sterile, lonely existence that is Harold Crick’s life.

The color and photography of the film is equally smart with its uses of sterile, fluorescent lighting and drab color of Crick’s existence, which only brightened when Harold finally accepted his pending fate and demise.

The story and emotion of this film should earn it a nomination for Best Film of the Year.