A really charming film. See it!I caught it this afternoon at Fenway with Earth-Shattering KaBOOM teammate, boy-Jacky (not to be confused with girl-Jackie). We had a really rough day at a volleyball tournament at Emmanuel. Went 0-6, an impressively consistent showing which won us the privilege of reffing the first round of playoffs. At least we were pretty efficient about coming in last and were out of the gym by about 2.15. It was a CR B- and we were a bit under on paper, but our performance on the court was definitely less than the sum of our ratings. I think we pushed our opponents to 26 (games to 25) in two matches, but we also had a game that—as one of our opponents put it afterward—was about us versus the net, and had nothing to do with the other team doing anything. When your goal is to break into double digits on the scoreboard, well, things aren't going very well, y'know?
Yeah, it was a rough day. I managed to talk Jacky into hitting FICTION in an effort to turn it around a bit (didn't really have to twist his arm). I'd say we succeeded. A chicken sandwich at Boston Beerworks didn't hurt any either. =)
Will Ferrell is an excellent straight everyman... Well, y'know, provided everyman is a well-meaning ambitiousless IRS auditor/agent, and aren't we all, really? Deep down? Yeah, I thought so. Maggie Gyllenhall is wonderful and sexy in overalls as the plucky bakery owner whose refusal to pay part of her taxes (the part that funds killer robot snakes and other warmongering development) has won her a fabulous audit. Emma T. is a very good neurotic writer's-blocked author. Perhaps a little too good, as just seeing her harried chain-smoking writer on screen can be a little exhausting. Queen Latifah. Errr... Fine, but a little distracting. She doesn't really get to build her character, or have a lot of character to build it sems, so she just registered as, well, Queen Latifah. Dustin Hoffman is an excellent professor of literature turned existential detective. Between this and I [HEART] HUCKABEES he may be the only actor in the world who could put anything like a case together for being typecast as a metaphysical gumshoe.
Not a bad thing if you ask me.
I hope Will continues to mixx things up with his roles. He doesn't need to be Frank the Tank or ANCHORMAN in everything, y'know? Not that he should stop that, but he's got the chops for drama. I think the success of comedic actors in roles in other genres and flavors totally proves the old adage, "Death is easy, comedy is hard." Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey (altho I haven't *really* seen him shake the Jim Carrey-ness since DOING TIME ON MAPLE DRIVE), and now, Will, are excellent with their straight, and even heavy, performances, because comedy in many ways is above and beyond drama, y'know? I don't know how a trained thespian would describe it, but once you've done comedy, it seems to me like if you can learn to dial it down in just the correct way, you end up in the realm of drama, and with some work, fine tune into the full range of serious emotion and character.
Like I said, I dont know how to describe this notion properly.
FICTION. The premise seems a bit Charlie Kaufman-y (ADAPTATION and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH—Did anyone else hear he's scripting SAW 4? Wack!) in its outlandishness and what-if?'ed real world, but boiled down, it's pretty simple—there is this man, living in the world, who also happens to be a character in a story in progress, and has recently become aware of it. That's not so hard, is it? The film builds on this fantastic premise very consistently and matter-of-factly, in the mode and attitude of the story's hero, Ferrell's dutiful borderline OCDisorderly tax man, Harold Crick. And it works so very well.
The reference to ADAPTATION should *not* scare away those who don't love or easily tune into Kaufman's stories and sensibilities. FICTION is definitely more accessible, lighter and not so twisty and twisted.
You visual nerds out there, you'll get to see the next-gen version of what FIGHT CLUB did with type and graphics on top of film, and—part MINORITY REPORT, part FIGHT CLUB—I think it's really pretty gorgeous and elegant.
I hafta admit the film jerked some tears out of me (in the bus scene). So if you're a sentimental sap like me, beware.
Perhaps Crick's life situation and set-up resonates a little more with me than the average moviegoer... in a bass-ackwards romantic way...
Romantic as in fantasy, not so much as in, like, love life. Cuz let me tell you, when I try anything that Crick does, typically, it's tazer time. Perhaps it's my delivery...
Yeah, I've said it before... I need a new writer.
Even if the rest of the film sucked (which it totally doesn't), I'd hafta give it a lot of points for a scene with Maggie's baker, Ana Pasquale, making the case for the Goodness of cookies.
Also, some powerful motivation to learn to play (even just one song on) the guitar. =)
STRANGER THAN FICTION makes for the movie equivalent of a good pan of slightly gooey buttery just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, great any day, but even moreso on a grey one. Check it out!
Keep on keepin on~
p.s. Man, I am just HATing on commercials and "behind-the-scenes" segments before films these days. Bleah.
p.p.s. Saw BORAT on Thursday night with my sister and Rowan, and then again on Saturday night with Dan with a group of people for his friend Ray's birthday. If you're familiar with Borat's thing from the ALI G SHOW, you'll love the film. If you're not, you might want to prep yourself with some pre-movie samples online or recorded. It's just like JESUS CAMP, only, y'know, more homophobic. =)
If you've already seen the movie, check out the press on Borat's unwitting co-stars. I wonder how any litigattion targetting the ALI G SHOW went...?
p.p.p.s. Got a trailer for SMOKIN ACES before my first BORAT viewing and damn I wish I'd had a chance to come up with/write that story. It looks like it's gonna be a ton of fun. Also, Jason Bateman! =)
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