Movie Review Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) 

Directed by Marc Forster 

Written Zach Helm 

Starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson

Release Date November 10th, 2006

Published November 8th, 2006 

Director Marc Forster is an exceptionally underrated director. In four features he has yet to make a less than brilliant movie, how many directors can say that. The resume is extraordinary. Monster's Ball, which won an Oscar for Halle Berry, a feat that looks more and more amazing with each ensuing performance from Ms. Berry. Finding Neverland, the J.M Barrie bio with the equally brilliant Johnny Depp, was a deserving Best Picture nominee.

Then there is the curious sci fi thriller Stay. This ingenious, marvelously directed film divided critics and met with complete audience indifference. For me Stay was a revelation and one of the best films of 2005.

Forster's latest is another movie that is dividing critics and only catching a modest audience. Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson, couldn't be any more different from Stay. This wonderfully wordy, literate, deadpan comedy has a complicated premise that is executed with breezy ease and light hearted intelligence. It's just simply a terrific little movie.

Will Ferrell stars in Stranger Than Fiction as Harold Crick. Harold is an IRS agent with a penchant for counting everything from steps to the strokes of his toothbrush. Harold's life is regimented, scheduled and timed to the minute. Timing becomes a crucial aspect of Harold's life as his unique wrist watch begins mixing up his life. Of course if a wacky wrist watch were Harold's only problem, he'd be happy.

Along with the wacky watch Harold has begun hearing a voice. Not voices, mind you, but a single voice that happens to be narrating his every move. Harold does what comes naturally in a situation like this, he consults a psychiatrist who immediately diagnoses him a schizophrenic. Unconvinced, Harold pleads for help in a more literary fashion to explain why his life is being narrated.

Enter professor Jules Hibbert (Dustin Hoffman) , a literary professor with a keen insight into narration and the art of the novel. Hibbert also believes that Harold is crazy until he hears the words ``Little did he know '',  a literary device that professor Hibbert has written volumes on. The phrase leads Hibbert to help Harold find his narrator and devine whether Harold is trapped within a comedy or a tragedy.

Parallel to Harold's story is that of novelist Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). A long respected writer, Ms. Eiffel is dealing with a case of writer's block so severe that her publisher has assigned an assistant (Queen Latifah) to keep her on track. Karen happens to be the narrator that Harold is looking for and her writer's block is a function of her inability to decide how to kill Harold Crick.

Writer Zak Helm came up with this wonderfully quirky story but it is director Marc Forster who gives it a visual life. Using various visual devices to lay out Harold's quirks and Karen's fantasies, Forster takes an exceptionally literary story and gives it texture and its own very unique reality. The story of Stranger Than Fiction is a bit of a mindbender at times but Forster manages to make it accessible, even comfortable and easy to follow for those willing to follow the movie's unique brand of logic.

Will Ferrell is terrific as the downbeat, average Joe Harold. Known more for his wildside, Ferrell indulges his rarely seen mild side to craft Harold as a believable character in an unbelievable situation. When Harold does come out of his shell and expresses his exasperation in more typically Will Ferrell ways, he manages to remain true to the character while delivering a few of the kinds of laughs we expect from a Will Ferrell character.

Maggie Gyllenhaal shows up in Stranger Than Fiction as Ana, the unlikely love interest for Harold. The romance in Stranger Than Fiction unfolds in the most wondrous of ways. Harold, unable or unwilling to approach Ana, has this crush thrust upon him by the narrator who leads him into the romance and then leaves him to cultivate it on his own. Harold is far from a natural romantic and the relationship develops strangely but in the most lovely of ways.

What I loved about Stranger Than Fiction is how smart it is about literature and literary conceits. The way Dustin Hoffman, as the literary professor Harold speaks to his narrator, speaks of the phrase 'little did he know', how he could write reams of papers about that phrase and its role in literature, its various meanings and interpretations. Part of the wonder is the way Hoffman delivers this line, with impish gleam in his eyes and boundless enthusiasm, but a bigger part is the truth of why he and we find it such a wondrous phrase.

Director Marc Forster's approach to Stranger Than Fiction was to create unusual characters and a universe in which those characters can exist in their own reality. A reality similar to our own but with its own unique beat. Compare Forster's approach to the one note approach of director Ryan Murphy in the film Running With Scissors, a film that wants a similar note of eccentricity but ends up just crafting weird characters being weird without regard to the world that formed them. 

Movie Review Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) 

Directed by Zach Helm 

Written by Zach Helm

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jason Bateman 

Release Date November 16th, 2007

Published November 15th, 2007 

Writer-director Zach Helm has a masterpiece in his future. A guy with this kind of imagination can't help but find greatness. Helm started his career with the inventive script for Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction, a film about a man whose life is narrated and manipulated by a novelist. Now he has moved on to his first directing gig and crafted the brightly imaginative kids flick Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

Just the kind of film that one would assume was adapted from a kids book, it has that much imaginative detail, Mr. Magorium is entirely the creation of Zach Helm. He was inspired by his time working in a toy store before Hollywood came calling. Assembling a top notch cast, including Stranger Than Fiction co-star Dustin Hoffman and the ethereal Natalie Portman, Helm creates a flawed but good natured family flick without the saccharine taste often attributed to the genre.

Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) has run his magical toy shop for more than 150 years, by his own count. He has made toys for Napoleon, Lincoln and any number of famous historical figures in his lifetime. Now however, it is time for his career to come to an end and indeed his time on this earth. No, Mr. Magorium is neither sick nor suicidal, it's just his time to go.

Before he leaves however, Magorium wants to make sure that his magic toy store is well taken care of. Ever since she was a young piano prodigy to the time she became manager of the toy shop, Molly Mahoney Natalie Portman) has been unknowingly groomed to take over the store. Now that Mr. Magorium is leaving he wants her to have the store.

Molly has never had a moment's doubt about the magic of the store but her failure to write a grand piano concerto after years of being a prodigy have left her with no belief in the magic within herself. Thus why she refuses to accept Mr. Magorium's offer of the store, and she is especially not ready for him to leave. Meanwhile Magorium hires an accountant, Henry (Jason Bateman) to look into the store's finances and discover the magic himself.

The whole thing about finding the magic within which is quite a cheeseball idea and yet it somehow works. Admittedly I almost choked on the line 'finding the magic within herself'. Nevertheless, that is the point of the film and that is not a bad aim for a kids flick. So many modern kids' flicks can barely claim to have such good intentions, often sacrificing good intentions in favor of loud noise and bright colors. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is not short on bright colors. Thankfully, writer-director Zach Helm has the good sense not to forget to tell a good story as he dazzles us with color and the magic of the toy shop.

Dustin Hoffman is no doubt channeling a bit of Willy Wonka in his Mr. Magorium. In fact, it's just the combination of Gene Wilder's sneaky, smarmy Wonka and Johnny Depp's wackjob, childlike Wonka. The combination works to make Mr. Magorium a terrifically funny and unique character like a grownup Pee Wee Herman.

Natalie Portman's pixie-ish beauty is the perfect casting for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium even if her performance has a few off notes. Ms. Portman is always a joy to watch but as written her character is the roadblock that keeps Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium from taking off as a truly great movie. As written Mahoney doesn't want to own the magical toy store but it is a struggle for Portman herself to make this feel true.

As cheery and fun as she is and the way she lights up at the magic all around her, it is nearly impossible to believe that she wouldn't jump at the chance to own her own magical toy shop. She seems born to the job. Thus, the film flounders as it tries to keep Mahoney from her destiny and we must wade through a few to many scenes of her doubts and realizations.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is the kind of family entertainment you won't mind the kids picking up on DVD or catching on cable on a Saturday afternoon. It's harmless and playful and full of imagination and color. That's more than you can say about a number of the so-called 'family movies' we've seen in the past few years. I'm looking at you Cheaper By The Dozen and Are We There Yet.

Director Zach Helm has a masterpiece in his future and based on the wildly imaginative Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, it ought to be quite eye-catching.