Let Me Get This Straight...

Will Ferrell, best known for his over-the-top comedy roles, playing it straight (mostly)? In an wannabe-existential romantic comedy?

Yep, and it works. Mostly.

In Stranger Than Fiction, he plays a taxman who discovers that he's a character in a novel written by Emma Thompson when he begins to hear her narration during his daily activities one day, telling of his impending death. While this begs the questions of whether he existed before that day, and if so, why did the narration only start that particular day, the winning performances tend to make one forget about them quickly.

Ferrell is touching and convincing, as a man who suddenly starts trying to find meaning in and make something out of his life, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is radiant and quirky as always, playing his romantic interest (yes, I do have a soft spot for her). The romance should have been the focus of the film, given their good chemistry together. This would also have let me see more of Maggie.

Too bad the plot has to get in the way, where Ferrell enlists the help of a literature professor, charmingly played by Dustin Hoffman, to help him make sense of it all. Not to say that it isn't entertaining, but far too often it feels like the writer is trying too hard to beat Charlie Kaufman at his own game - which we all know is impossible. It ends up feeling half-hearted and uneven.

It doesn't help that the supporting roles are weak. Emma Thompson tries, but her tortured writer role is nothing but a big, walking, chain-smoking cliché. And don't get me started on Queen Latifah's completely unnecessary part as a "stenographer" come to "inspire" Thompson. And while it was nice to see Arrested Development's Buster on the big screen, he had even less scenes than Queen Latifah. It's a testament to his talent that he wrings far more out of his character than she does.

It's no big secret that in the end Thompson changes her novel's ending such that Ferrell survives, even though everyone tells her that it weakens the entire novel (Side note: Why people are always gushing over her writing when it sounds so clunky is beyond me). This is, after all, a Hollywood movie. The biggest irony is that the cop-out feel-good ending is exactly what weakens the entire movie the most, and undercuts everything that has gone before. Sure, the original ending might've ended on a dark note, but it doesn't mean there's no hope left. In his quest for meaning and love, Ferrell has given it his all, and it could've been inspiring, even. Ultimately, the ending just serves as a reminder that Hollywood demands happy endings, even when they so obviously don't work.