Some people are genuine, some are characters, and perhaps, the lucky few are main characters. In this film, Will Ferrell finds himself in a very different role, he's not the funnyman, not the buffoon, he's simply the main character who's being narrated (literally Literarily) to death. Emma Thompson plays his author. Ferrell and Gyllenhaal are strong, while other actors deliver sometimes dodgy performances. As an author myself, I appreciated this film for writing me (and you) into the picture with a surreal pane of glass between the screen and the audience. It's a clever script with some very sweet moments. Maggie Gyllenhaal is flawless as the love interest. The eye for cinematography is keen with simply gorgeous and perfectly appropriate shots on the accordion bus. This scene creates in visual that dizzying feeling of those first daring flirtations with the person of desire.

I appreciated the film all the more as an author bringing his sixth book to press -- next week! "Stranger than Fiction" feels even stranger to me since my book's main character also seeks an audience with his book's author (me). Both this film and my book bring more to the reader/viewer than just good literature/cinema -- they've both got a message you could appreciate -- and that is simply to appreciate life. It's good to be inspired. So, if you don't see the movie or get my book, find another way to, as McGraw sings "live as if you were dying!"

This film screened at a Krikorian Theatre.

Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony