After the success of writer Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind” and “Being John Malkovich,” Hollywood has finally realized that gold can be spun from off-kilter, existential comedies with non-linear narration. Now they are investing in other quirky writers like Zach Helm, who has woven together an unbelievable, illegally brilliant new comedy, “Stranger Than Fiction,” where authors can inexplicably control the fate of real people. Without bothering to debate the realm of possibilities, writer Helm and director Marc Forster forge a fascinating theory of the purity of art vs. the necessity for humanity.
A hapless IRS agent (Will Farrell) finds his life being narrated by an author (Emma Thompson). Slowly, he comprehends that this unknown voice truly exists and may control his destiny. When he identifies the voice as a famed recluse who always kills off her protagonists, he must convince her to go against her artistic integrity. But is art more powerful and essential to humanity than one ordinary person?
“Stranger Than Fiction” delights in questioning