Stranger Than Fiction

Rhyme

Saw this today and found it surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn't expecting much as im not Will Ferrel's biggest fan but Dustin Hoffman being in it offset my view before i got in. I was wrong.

Ferrel was quite good, Hoffman was excellent as usual, Maggie Gyllenhaal was attractive and Emma Thompson was very odd.

Worth watching in my opinion.

Basq

Yeah, been looking forward to this.

PS - about time we saw Will Ferrell in something different.. he's been playing the same character for his last 8 movies... now Steve Carell, he's diverse!

qwertplaywert

omg movie of the year.....saw today.....great proformances from EVERYONE...........Ferrell for at least comdedy/musical goldon globe nom?!?

Stargal

I thought it was excellent; a lot of the reviews I'd read had been critical of it for being a rip-off of Charlie Kaufman films, but it was v different and original. And, rather embarrassingly, I actually cried a little bit at one part - never thought that would happen at a Will Ferrell film!

qwertplaywert

same..........he really knows how to make an audience hold one to every word and action............2 bad i was in the cinema with my friend,and a few rows donw were a couple of 10/11/12 year old scumbags,leaping around,throwing popcorn,makign as much noise as possilbe[mobiles constantly ringing] and throwing stuff at me and my friend and then ducking and shouting gay.................i would have really complained about to the cinema had i not been in a rush to get collected by my dad............

quickbeam

I'm a fan of Charlie Kaufman films, and all reviews I'd read favourbly compared this to one of his so I was looking forward to it.

I thought it was good. I did come close to tears at one point too. But I didn't it was brilliant. All round good performances, and an interesting story, but somehow left unsatisfied at the end. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Also, something I couldn't help but notice - did anybody else think that Emma Thompson's book sounded like the most boring read ever. A book that basically consisted of "boy meets girl, boy gets hit by bus and dies, the end". She must have been some writer to make it interesting.

Basq

quickbeam wrote:

..basically consisted of "boy meets girl, boy gets hit by bus and dies, the end"..

Was that a fúcking spoiler!?!? :mad:

Thanks a fúcking lot... FFS!

Rhyme

basquille wrote:

Was that a fúcking spoiler!?!? :mad:

Thanks a fúcking lot... FFS!

Ignore it... their 'summary' is incorrect.

Stargal

Yeah, strangely enough, that won't actually spoil anything for you.

Basq

Phew.. cheers!

quickbeam

Sorry. I hope it doesn't spoil it. It's the plot of the book being written, and not the plot of the movie, so thought it was okay.

Wacker

quickbeam wrote:

Sorry. I hope it doesn't spoil it. It's the plot of the book being written, and not the plot of the movie, so thought it was okay.

It would be politee to edit your post anyway, I would suggest.

Anyway, I was very into the movie. "Thank you for making me eat them" was one of the funniest lines I have heard in a while. Also, nice to see that Will Ferrell can effectively play it straight.

johnny_ultimate

Definitely one of the best films of the year. The Charlie Kaufman comparisons are justified, but two quite different writers - STF is much brighter than Kaufman films on the whole - despite moments of darkness.
Could be one of the few 10/10s I've seen lately.

qwertplaywert

same.......best film of year...........but borats VERY close

ixoy

Good and all, but I'm with quickbeam on this - good, but not superb. I can't really fault the performances in any way and Ferrel does his own "Truman Show" here and shows he can act and act pretty well (normally I feel like smacking him).

The plot's an interesting concept but I felt a bit unsatisfied with how few answers we got. know, I know I shouldn't expect any but a little bit of an attempt would have been nice. It didn't seem to package up as neatly as "Adaptation" (its closest cousin) and there were times when it wasn't clear the extent he heard the authorial voice.

Definetely worth seeing with the current relatively weak selection out there, but not the film of the year for me and probably not in the top five either..

senordingdong

I went into this with low expectations because I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell.
But after the begining I was satisfied because he seemed to be setting into a serious role, which he was doing quite well, but then the 'humour' kicked in and I wasn't impressed.
That soon passed and the movie got back on track.
I was hugely gripped the whole way through, not just by the story but by some great performances, even by Queen Latifah.
I think some elements of Ferrel's 'loser personality' were over-played a wee bit, such as the

'I want you' line etc...

Also, when Ferrel found out what was going to happen, after Hoffman read the ending, I was unbelievably hooked. From that point on the film took this whole new direction and explored some really interesting areas.

Ferrell's 'last day' was so griping and involving as he went about his daily business knowing it was his last day, like when he bought his friend the Space Camp membership. Assisting in his own death by playing along in the story must have been like what someone feels when they are planning to commit suicide. Even the editing was brilliant, how it followed each cast member to see how they were dealing with the impedning events. I couldn't believe how interesting this part was.
Then he got hit and like so many deaths/loses we experience, it was harshly abrupt, especially after such a tense build up. I too was close to tears at this point. It was like the perfect wrap to a brilliant story.

But then they changed the ending....and everything this point on was just pathetic to me and it really ruined the film.
It felt like Hollywood weren't happy with a non-happy ending so ordered the writers of the film to change the ending.
It was terrible and I can never forgive that this brillaint ending was so horrible ruined.

A potential 9 out of 10 was lowered to a 4/5.

lostexpectation

basquille wrote:

Was that a fúcking spoiler!?!? :mad:

Thanks a fúcking lot... FFS!

are you serious basquille

MisterAnarchy

Watched this on DVD last night.
Really really enjoyed it.
Great script,great dialogue and good acting.

lostexpectation

this film was sappy and and I don't particularily like the constant fantasy that some cukey(sp?) but sexy women is going to come along and somehow fall in love with a unaatractive and uninteresting older man?

he plays guitar and sings and she jumps on him? *puke*

qwertplaywert

anyone know when the dvd[region 2]is out?

BopNiblets

Play.com says 02/04/2007.

Good movie, although I wanted Queen Latifah to say "Oh no he di'int!"... but she di'int.

Best scene Tony Hale (Buster!) and Will Ferrell at dinner.