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Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick, a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of Professor Jules Hibbert (Dustin Hoffman), Harold discovers he's the main character in a novel-in-progress and that the voice belongs to Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), an eccentric author famous for killing her main characters in creative ways. Harold must quickly track down Eiffel and stop her before she conjures up a way to finish him off.

Will Ferrell is Harold Crick, an auditor for the IRS whose life could hardly be more routine and mundane. As he adheres strictly to that routine he begins to hear a woman's voice. She does not tell him what to do, but rather she offers a detached, third-party narration as he goes about his day. With the help of a professor of literature, who is deemed to be more helpful than his psychiatrist, Harold is able to solve the mystery of the voice's origin. But what he finds may not be what he wants to hear.

I was skeptical -- at the very least -- of Will Ferrell's involvement in this movie. While not altogether a "serious" movie, I still felt that this role might be too much for him. As it turns out, I was wrong. I was worried that he would try too hard to shun his class-clown nature to be more adaptable to a wide range of film. He was very likeable in this role, but I would not say that he was great. I just don't think the part was that strong, but he did well enough in it.

Emma Thompson was excellent in her neurosis as she was deconstructed by her writer's block.

Maggie Gyllenhaal has been a tough nut to crack for me. In the few performances of hers that I have seen, she has seemingly played the same character over and over. I felt she brought that same character to Stranger Than Fiction, but it just fit better here than in other movies. Because of that, or whatever else, Maggie was at her most charming in Stranger Than Fiction.

With all of these performances from a cast of notable names, the highlight was Dustin Hoffman. Looking back at the film's credits I guess I can't be too surprised that Hoffman stole the show, but I guess I hadn't expected it. He was funny, intelligent, mysterious, compassionate, quirky...he was all over the place. And he was great.

There was an arguably unnecessary visual effect used for most of the movie. To really hammer home how Harold Crick's mechanical and mathematical mind worked, the movie continuously featured on-screen effects to show protracted angles, measurements and percentages. The movie probably didn't need these effects, but I loved them. They were an added emphasis on the attention to detail which I appreciate so much.

I am not sure if it was in any way related to my expecting so little from this movie, but I really loved Stranger Than Fiction. The story was incredibly creative and everyone who contributed, both cast and crew, made it an enjoyable movie to watch. I have already been recommending this movie to others and now I recommend it to you.

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