The list of America’s greatest sketch comedians going serious in good-to-great films is a long one.
Jim Carrey in “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Tom Hanks in “Philadelphia.”
Steve Martin in “The Spanish Prisoner” or “Roxanne.”
Eddie Murphy in “48 Hours.”
We could do a whole seminar on this. But we’ve got to add at least one more: The overlooked work of Will Ferrell amid the deeply moving charms of “Stranger Than Fiction.”
Ferrell is the most bankable comic going at the box office, so all the more reason to celebrate his most serious attempt at being serious. Zach Helm launched the worthy effort by writing an intriguing hook about a Joe Everyman, who one day finds out his entire life is merely the fictional construct of a novelist who narrates all his thoughts.
Just before Ferrell learns the disturbing truth, he is the world’s most repressed IRS auditor. Every move is dictated by the beeping of his wristwatch, and he avoids emotional attachment like Charlie Sheen avoids moderation.
But just as Ferrell is growing intrigued with a tax-protesting suspect, a neighborhood baker played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, he starts hearing “the voice.” It anticipates his every move and knows his every synapse. His psychiatrist is no help, because we in the audience know he’s not crazy. So how about a professor of literature?
That’s when Ferrell visits Dustin Hoffman, comfortably playing second fiddle, who begins to suspect the unseen narrator is a famous novelist (Emma Thompson).
Thompson’s writer character is desperate to finish this novel; problem is, her main characters always die. Does Ferrell have to make the ultimate sacrifice just as he’s learning to love life? Will character meet author? Can the course of fiction be altered? Can Will Ferrell keep a straight face?
The answer to the last one is, he can, and he admirably does. The suppression of his own natural liveliness makes us believe his suppressed character all the more.
It’s a wonderful performance in a fascinating idea of a film.
“Stranger Than Fiction”
Rated: PG-13, for mild profanity and some sexuality and language leading to implied, off-camera sex.
Best suited for: Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson fans, appreciators of great writing concepts, kids 12 and older
