Quite Strange. In a Good Way

I saw Stranger Than Fiction last night mostly because I had nothing better to do and my brother had no decent movie to lend. I was sceptical at first because I was in a mood for a rom-com. But I have to say that I was hooked from the very beginning.

First off, I have a thing for geeks. Hey, don’t judge. They’re so cute. And Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is definitely a geek. He counts the number strokes while brushing his teeth, he counts the number of tiles in a room and he counts the number of steps he’s climbed. He is an audit for the Internal Revenue Service and his carefully planned life which he follows second by second with the help of his wrist watch is thrown out of the window when he starts hearing this voice in his head. The Voice narrates his life. And if The Voice isn’t enough he is given the job to audit for Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

When I first saw the intentionally tax-delinquent baker, Ana, my first impression is of an irresponsible, fickle person what with her tattoos and her behaviour towards Harold, but her character is so much more than that. She’s difficult with Harold in the beginning but there are reasons behind those actions.
And then there’s the eccentric English Professor, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman). He does an excellent job as usual. No surprises there. My only complaint is that slurping sound every time he takes a sip of his coffee.  It was like nails against a blackboard to my ears. I cringed every time he did that. I know I should be talking more about his acting and blah, blah but this is a serious issue.
Getting back to The Voice. The Voice is that of a writer, Karen (Kay) Eiffel (Emma Thompson) who is suffering from writer’s block. For ten years. She is writing a story and guess who her protagonist is- Harold Crick. Here’s the catch-she is looking for ways to kill Harold Crick. She obviously doesn’t know that he exists.
So to all the girls like me who prefer rom-coms go watch the movie-there’s a fair bit of romance sprinkled and to all the guys –you’re the one to judge about rom-coms? If you'll believe that any girl can run. No scratch that- sprint in 6 inch heels and save the world from robots (Transformers reference) then let me tell you that the odds of two people finding the love of their lives are much higher. So shut up.