Fantasy Football League goes to the movies (yes, just like the
rest of you). Sometimes I go with one of my many lady friends.
Still other times I go with fellow ROFFL members. After viewing
these movies, I form an opinion. Here in a new column, exclusive
to retiredorangemen.com, is Five Second Stare at the Movies.
There are 5 ratings:
HANDSOME
GOOD-LOOKING
DECENT
IF I HAD A FEW DRINKS IN ME
GROSS
Looking, but I don’t think the movie is nearly as funny as “Borat!” or as good as
“Little Miss Sunshine,” so it landed on decent.
Ok, to the film.
Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) has never seen “The Shawshank Redemption.” We all
remember Red saying, “get busy living, or get busy dying.” Well it looks like
Harold Crick has chosen the latter. Harold works for the IRS and he is
miserable. The problem with Mr. Crick is that he doesn’t seem to have too much
of a problem with this. He is boring and content to be boring.
That is until one day, when his watch (of all things) decides to do something
about all of this. After all, if you were Harold Crick’s watch, wouldn’t you be
pissed? Harold starts to hear a voice in his head. Not a voice telling him what to
do, but telling him what he is doing, what he has done, and what he is feeling.
No doubt, this throws Harold’s life into frenzy. No longer can he rely on his timed
schedule, it’s hard to concentrate with an extra voice is in your head.
What makes matters worse is that he’s starting to fall in love with a baker
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) whom he is auditing. Now I don’t know much about women,
but auditing them isn’t the easiest way to their heart.
Harold isn’t the only character having issues; his extra voice isn’t doing to well
either. The voice is of Kay Eiffel, an author with writer’s bloc. Her new
masterpiece is called “Death and Taxes” and all that’s missing is a suitable way
for her main character, Harold Crick, to die. She is writing the book of Harold’s
life, and she is controlling his destiny. And she says he dies. Imagine if you had
no control over your destiny, how would you feel? Well, that’s how Harold feels
and it leads him on a journey of life, not death.
“Stranger Than Fiction” is one of the more enjoyable films you’ll see this year. It
is sprinkled with great performances and good writing. Marc Forster, who
directed both “Monster’s Ball” (the only time Halle Berry has ever acted) and
“Finding Neverland” throws in very nice touches in the film. I enjoyed how he
managed to find a way for the viewer to see exactly what Harold was thinking,
without really beating us over the head with it (if you see the movie, which I am
recommending, you’ll know what I mean).
As I mentioned before, the performances are top-notch. Emma Thompson is
automatic at this point and Dustin Hoffman has a nice supporting role as a
literary professor Harold Crick seeks advice from. But the best scenes in the
movie involve Will Ferrell (who will be nominated for best comedic performance at
the Golden Globes) and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The two have tremendous
chemistry and come off as a very believable couple falling in love. By the way,
and I don’t care if I’m on an island with this, but I think Maggie Gyllenhaal is very
good looking.
“Stranger Than Fiction” is definitely a film worth seeing. I left the theatre in one
of those moods. You know those moods right? Like you’re happy to be alive
and you want to go out and do something special because you know you can. I
wasn’t a huge fan of the ending of the film, but you know what? I don’t think the
writer, director, and characters were either.
