Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction Image
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Metascore
67 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 149 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Will Ferrell
  • Summary: 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)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 35
  3. Negative: 1 out of 35
  1. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    91
    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.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Freer
    80
    It might be Charlie Kaufman lite, but this is a great date movie for the discerning -- smart, ingenious and heartwarming.
  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    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?
  4. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    38
    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.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 63
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 63
  3. Negative: 4 out of 63
  1. WayneH.
    10
    I think this is a much better movie than the critics are rating and my 3 friends who watched it at my behest all agreed that it is one of the best movies we've ever seen. It is a "quiet", and utterly compelling movie. The cast is superb (Will Farrell is perfect in the role and his reaction in the scene where the professor (Dustin Hoffman) tells him that the ending where he dies will make the novel truly great, therefore he really should allow the author to "kill" him is one of the best pieces of acting that I've ever seen. Emma Thompson gives her "usual" extraordinary performance. An intelligent, witty script provides the basis for all.… Expand
  2. MiguelD.
    8
    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.… Expand
  3. BillyS.
    7
    I went into Stranger Than Fiction expecting to see a Best Picture nominee but it turns out to be only a Top 10 film instead.A great story that positively soars when Emma Thompson is narrating the action but coasts on auto-pilot when she's not. The cast is excellent, it's so great to see Miss Thompson back in a smart adult role to show everyone theres more than Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet when it comes to English actresses. Will Ferrell, "little did he know", has made his best screen performance yet, similar to Jim Carrey in The Truman Show. And then there's Dustin Hoffman, whose name on the credits is reason enough to go see a movie, and once again is perfect here, as is Maggie Gyllenhaal. Marc Forster has again teamed with Roberto Schaffer for yet another visually stunning film that looks like a big budget f/x blockbuster but remains a simple little "what if" movie, a little to simple for Best Picture consideration but save a space on your Top 10 list for it otherwise.… Expand
  4. DevynS.
    3
    I was really bored with this movie, in fact my friend that I was watching it with completely fell asleep....the last 15 minutes were ok.

See all 63 User Reviews

Trailers

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