2 of 26

Write now Article Tools

Losing the Plot!

Guys (as in guys and girls), I think I might have the film for you. Yes you! I know you're fed up with all these patronizing Hollywood dramas, soppy chick flicks and dumbass shoot em ups. Well, this is a rarity from Tinsletown: a movie that treats the audience with intelligence. Now I have got your attention!

A clever cross between Spike Jonzes Adaptation' and The Trueman Show, director Marc Foster-of Neverland and the Oscar wining (cough!) Monsters Ball fame-hits you with a movie that wants to test you, has the viewer thinking all the way through it and working out what's its motive maybe-where's this intriguing narrative going

Its high concept casts the excellent Will Ferrell as exactly the opposite of his unique comedy screen persona, here playing it very straight as a boring tax inspector that lives his life in the shadows, his world ruled by numbers and precision, in and out of work, scared to step into the light in case those sums don't add up. But when the voice in his head becomes real-and that's accepted in the context of the movie-it's an interesting idea as it dares to leave the films central conceit unexplained, and that's really not allowed in a Hollywood movie. Every plot needs to be explained, signposted and heavily hinted, but here the ending is left as abstract of the films central premise. I'm telling you guys, there's not a lot out there like this so you need to rent it now. Your smart people, I have found you a winner here! Pukka', as Delboy would say.

-PLOT-

Chicago IRS (Inland Revenue) man, Harold Crick, does everything by numbers to keep absolute order in his boring life. He is single, a drone, and he doesn't care. With a narration by Emma Thompson we learn that he is obsessed with those numbers and calculations to an unhealthy level. Be it the exact amount of brushstrokes he applies to his teeth every morning or counting every step to work, making sure he is in the same place everyday he was yesterday at this time, his trusting and exotic watch a likewise timekeeper. Routine is everything, unitil, that is, one Wednesday morning.
Today he can hear the voice of his narrator, telling him exactly what he's doing and just done, but he unable to stop her. After the obvious visit to the shrink, diagnosing schitzopherina, he is determined to prove the Doc wrong.

Harold has a plan B for his pungent problem, seeking the help of imminent university professor, Dr Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who believes Cricks predicament is probably madness,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Movie reviews: Stranger Than Fiction?
We want to hear your view. Write now!