Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
55
Christmas Carol, A
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
33
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
xx
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
xx
WolfMan, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
46
44 Inch Chest
83
Ajami![]()
73
Amreeka
xx
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
84
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
48
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
68
Departures
62
District 13: Ultimatum
85
Education, An![]()
71
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
68
Girl on the Train, The
52
Killing Kasztner
74
Last Station, The
43
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
73
Me and Orson Welles
76
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
xx
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
63
North Face
xx
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
69
Red Riding Trilogy, The
29
Saint John of Las Vegas
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
xx
Still Bill
76
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
19
To Save a Life
68
Town Called Panic, A
59
Until the Light Takes Us
xx
Videocracy
65
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon![]()
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Stranger Than Fiction
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 100 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance
Written by: Zach Helm
Directed by: Marc Forster
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 10, 2006
DVD: February 27, 2007
Running Time: 113 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity
Starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Queen Latifah, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson
Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS Agent whose world is turned upside-down when he begins to hear his life being chronicled by a narrator only he can hear. The Narrator, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a nearly forgotten author of tragic novels, is struggling to complete her latest and best book, unaware that her protagonist is alive and uncontrollably guided by her words. Fiction and reality collide when the bewildered and hilariously resistant Harold hears the Narrator say that events have been set in motion that will lead to his imminent death. (Sony)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Everything Put Together Finding Neverland Kite Runner, The Monster's Ball Stay
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
In a feat of performing imagination, Ferrell turns his usual extroversion inside out and his usual zaniness into precision, and makes it all work for him.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Stranger Than Fiction is slicker than Kaufman's work - and Forster's direction is certainly more studio-ish than Kaufman collaborators Spike Jonze's or Michel Gondry's. But it's a clever idea, and you feel a little smarter watching the thing unfurl.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
What a thoughtful film this is, and how thought-stirring. Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction comes advertised as a romance, a comedy, a fantasy, and it is a little of all three, but it's really a fable, a "moral tale."
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Stranger than Fiction is a wonderful cinematic experience - a welcome way to spend a chilly autumn evening.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Maybe the best thing about Stranger Than Fiction is the way it extracts unexpected work from underrated actors.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Freer
It might be Charlie Kaufman lite, but this is a great date movie for the discerning -- smart, ingenious and heartwarming.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
In a film that easily could have been cold or ironical, Ferrell provides the emotional thrust.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Intricately plotted without being contrived and exhilarating in its eccentricity.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
With a track record that stretches from "Monster's Ball" all the way to "Finding Neverland," Forster is clearly a director at ease with a wide range of material. He's found confection-land here, setting his beater on ready-whip and mixing the dough just fine.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Stranger Than Fiction may not be the typical crowd-pleaser, but it's a sweet, funny, intelligent film that showcases just how much Ferrell can do, even when he's doing less.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It has a nifty premise and outstanding performances from Ferrell, as the protagonist-in-progress, and Emma Thompson, as his blocked creator.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Foster finds the common ground on which his eclectic cast can meet (no small feat when they range from brassy Queen Latifah to "Arrested Development"'s deadpan Tony Hale) and keeps the story's sweetness from devolving into saccharine kitsch.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
When Ferrell and Hoffman do their thing together, a charming bit of whimsy becomes something more. It becomes really, really funny.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
This is a Ferrell you've never seen before, nailing a role that calls for breakneck humor in the final race against the clock and touching gravity in the love scenes with Gyllenhaal.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Amid all this metafictional hoopla lies the real heart of the movie, a tentative romance between Ferrell and a tax-withholding baker played with adorable prickliness by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
A refreshingly grown-up comedy, "Stranger" is a charming film that is unafraid to be low-key in ways that studio releases seldom are.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
It's soon apparent that a closer model for this charming romantic comedy is "Bell, Book and Candle." The direction by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) is so fluffy it's easy to drift along and ignore the logical lapses.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Pulls us along in a state of pleasant expectation.
The New York Times A.O. Scott
While Stranger Than Fiction traffics in a bit of darkly funny existential anxiety, it also finds room for romantic fantasy and sentimental uplift.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
An oddly sweet little tale, and easily Ferrell’s most enjoyable movie in recent memory. And even though his onscreen chemistry with Gyllenhaal fills me with murderous rage, this film goes a long way towards erasing the memory of his more obnoxious roles.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Sometimes becomes too self-consciously clever, and it doesn't entirely resolve its own central dilemma. But it remains inventive and funny to the end, features fine performances from Will Ferrell and especially Emma Thompson.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
A more sensitive Ferrell in a script that plays like Charlie Kaufman Lite: that should send up breakthrough and Oscar signals. It doesn't quite, though. The movie is clever, but a little too pleased with its own clockwork intricacy.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Teems with ideas both literary and existential, which might make it unbearably precious, were it not redeemed by woozy charm and some serious acting from Will Ferrell.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
In practice, "Fiction" isn't nearly that unusual. Less like "Adaptation" than a smarter version of "Click," the picture pleases while remaining unchallenging to a broad audience.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Like Jim Carrey, Ferrell seems to think that the way to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor is to drain himself of everything that audiences love about him.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt
A good movie but not a great one, Stranger Than Fiction is reminiscent of the films of Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) but lacks that writer's conceptual rigor and imaginative power.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
An eminently easy-to-watch piece of one-joke pop japery, is a movie that mimics the I'm-a-character-in-my-own-life metaphysical playfulness of "The Truman Show."
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
A boldly original undertaking: It's the first movie ever to come up with the idea of remaking "The Truman Show."
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
With its twist, the movie leaps into a fresh realm of fantasy. But director Marc Forster and first-time screenwriter Zach Helm don't know what to do when they get there, and the film's greatest asset almost becomes its undoing.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The picture is an overworked trifle: There's so much going on in it that it becomes hard to care about ANYTHING that's going on in it. The story in Stranger Than Fiction is stranger than fiction. But what good is it if it's unreadable?
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jim Ridley
Stranger Than Fiction merely layers whimsy upon whimsy. As written, Harold Crick is no more convincing a human being than he is an IRS agent; Kay Eiffel's writing, supposedly good enough to inspire the career-long devotion of a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), sounds as dully declamatory as movie-trailer narration.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Seems to suffer from low self-esteem. Why can't this movie see that it doesn't need a hulking meta-narrative apparatus to make us care about its story? It had us at hello--or would have, if not for the excess of high-concept trickery.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
There's a problem: This romance isn't developed enough to be truly satisfying -- it's fat-free SnackWell's when you want Godiva. It's not the original story we signed up for -- or thought we did.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The bad news is that Ferrell's modestly likable performance is the ONLY good thing about this misguided comedy that's so tiresomely written, badly acted by a stellar cast and ploddingly directed (by art-house whiz Marc Forster) that it just never quite gets off the ground.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Watching the movie made me long for the big , risky ideas and entertainingly fearless filmmaking in David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees " and Spike Jonze's "Adaptation ," which Kaufman wrote. Both were similarly conceptual escapades, but they let it all hang out.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 100 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Janet C gave it an8:
This is a really good and thoroughly enjoyable film. It's funny everytime you watch it. The ending lets it down quite a LOT, to be honest. But that's the only fault it has the burden of bearing. My 11 year old sister actually loves it too, so it clearly has mass appeal for a very wide and varied audience. Recommended.
Brody S. gave it a4:
Based on its commercials, I went into this film thinking it would be a comedy. Boy was I wrong. There's few things I hate more in this world than romantic comedies, and this romantic TRAGEDY is one of them. I'm sure I may have enjoyed it more if I came to it expecting something different, but as it was advertised as a comedy, I'll hold it to its tremendous shortcomings in the funny departmant.
Miguel D. gave it an8:
Incredibly smart and touching. Oddly reminiscent mix of Punch Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but completely novel in it's own delivery. Will make you feel intelligently warm inside.
Vik M. gave it a9:
Ok, it was actually a really good movie.. I enjoyed it. It made you think and will ferrel is better in serious movies. Not my favorite, but i enjoyed it a whole lot
MCE gave it a7:
I agree that it was fun but could have been done better. Not sure what Queen L.'s contribution was and what the value of the time spent on the love interest was (other than to become a "date" movie. But I did enjoy it.
Brentoni gave it a7:
A clever script and a good love story keep this one going. Its mildly funny at times. The soundtrack is great. I personally thought the ending was disappointing.
Mark S. gave it a7:
Very enjoyable, and a nice idea. But does make you wonder if it could have been done better.
