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December 11, 2006
seen a good book lately
smockdaddy and i went to see stranger than fiction. i thought this was a really interesting flick and i look forward to seeing it again on dvd because i'm sure i missed some of the more subtle references. in a nutshell, this movie is about a character in a book who isn't really a fictional character at all -- he is real and his life is being dictated by an author who plans to kill him in the last chapter. fabulous premise, no?
the bad news about this whole movie is that the entire plot with emma thompson (playing karen effiel, an author who writes novels about isolation and who bumps off all her main characters) and queen latifah (whose casting and character were the strangest things about this entire flick) are bo-ring and, frankly, annoying. i just wanted their characters to go away already. problem is, their storyline is the foundation upon which the movie is based. so, the question on my mind was not how will they get rid of harold? but rather how can we get rid of them?
on the other hand, will farrell (as harold crick, a sweet, unassuming and painfully dull IRS agent who is a real person whose life is being written by karen eiffel) is practically flawless in this role. and, the scenes between dustin hoffman (who plays a very dry but witty professor of literature trying to help harold decide if his life is a tragedy or a comedy) and will farrell contain some of the best comedic timing and one-liners i've seen lately and i wish there had been a lot more screentime of the two of these men waxing philosophical.
the little love story is ... if pressed for a word ... cute. it could have been better had there been more of it, but as it played it seemed a little saccharine. we basically had three movies going on, two of which had terrific potential.
living, dying, literature. a great big metaphysical question mark. this movie had enormous potential, but i think it catered to an undereducated audience. still, i suspect it'll be one of those movies that i enjoy more, the more i see it. i think it's worth the price of matinee admission. but what do i know? smockdaddy snored through almost the whole thing.
Posted by smockmomma at December 11, 2006 12:28 PM
Comments
Yeah Emma Thompson & Queen L. were really unwatchable in this. I'm surprised Smockdaddy slept thru that scene where the camera lovingly lingered on Ferrel's love interest's legs (she had them draped over & around Ferrel).
Anyway definitely a good flick. Want to see Apocalypto one of these days. Maybe Nativity too. And probably that CIA flick that's coming out around Christmas. And "The Departed".
Posted by: TSO at December 11, 2006 2:42 PM
my you have an entire list to get you through the holidays, sir.
gyllenhaal and her boyish good looks don't do much for smockdaddy. as for gyllenhaal's gams, he prefers more shapely, womanly legs. or so he very wisely tells me.
Posted by: smockmomma at December 11, 2006 3:48 PM