Sometimes, I wonder if one of the ways one can tell if one is watching an original movie is if one says to him or herself, "It seems like someone else must have made this movie before...it's such a great idea." Rack my brain as I might, I cannot think of another movie like this one. It was released some 7 years ago. I watched it again this week, and while I see some of its weaknesses, its originality and humor are more clear to me than ever. It is difficult to write about this movie without revealing essential plot points. I will not reveal the end, but if you want to be totally surprised by this great story, stop reading here and come back to my entry later :).
Will Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS agent with a decidedly dull and predictable life. One day, while he is going about his routine, he starts hearing an audible voice. While he hears it and the audience of the film hears it, no one else does. The voice is narrating his life as he lives it. At first, this is troubling to Harold and annoying, since he cannot make the voice stop. Then, as the voice reveals a future key turn of events in Harold's life, Harold becomes truly scared. He begins to seek help, but the therapists he sees merely prescribe medication for schizophrenia. Harold understands their diagnosis, but feels he is sane and is hearing this voice. The second therapist he sees suggests to him that he talk to someone who knows about literature, since the voice he is hearing seems to be narrating his life, as though he were living in a book. He finds a literature professor at a local college (Dustin Hoffman) who begins to help him. As the story continues, Harold has to figure out what kind of a story he is living, and what he is to do about it. While Harold's fate unfolds, the author of the story (Emma Thompson) is struggling. She is a writer of tragedies, and she always kills off her main characters. However, she has encountered a nasty case of writer's block, and she cannot figure out how to creatively kill of the character of her new story, a man named Harold Crick. It is her voice that Harold Crick hears narrating her life, and when the professor of literature who is helping Harold discovers who the voice who is narrating his life belongs to, he knows that Harold can only have one fate. This is troubling to Harold because the narrator's voice and the crisis that it caused in his life has opened Harold up to living his life in a new way. This includes falling in love with a young lady in town who owns a bakery (Maggie Gyllenhall), and deepening his freiendship with a coworker at the IRS. Thus, Harold begins a quest to find the author of his life and convince her not to kill him.
For some reason, the words the late Roger Ebert wrote about this movie have stuck with me through the years. This movie actually asks questions about what duty an artist has to his or her work. If letting Harold live makes for a less artistic story, what should the artist do? The movie is very well constructed. There are some shots near the beginning of a young boy on a bike and of a young lady job searching that seem unrelated to the story, but come to be essential elements of the story. As I watched the movie again, some of the scenes with the author and the agent from the publisher (played well by Queen Latifah) seem forced and not as natural as the rest of the plot. However, since theplot revolves around the tension between creature and creator, the author's story is vital. I simply think that many of the scenes with the two of them seem awkward, and when the story returns to Harold Crick, the soul of the movie is really there. Also, Dustin Hoffman is absolutely wonderful in this movie. He creates a character who is so unapologetic in his academic world. He sees the man in front of him as a character, even though he is a real person. As such, he is cavalier with Harold, but always in a way that is satirical and true. Every motion Hoffman makes-every nervous twitch, every cup of coffee-contributes to the character he creates. Will Ferrell is also a perfect choice for his role. Ferrell always has had the strength of being "all in" with any role he does, whether in a full length film, or in a short SNL sketch. Here, his comic abilities serve him well, but he creates a character who is so sympathetic and real that one forgets that this is the same actor who streaked through "Old School."
In the end, the movie is great because it is original. It has a new angle on storytelling, and the climactic moments of the movie feel truly different from anything else I have ever seen. Not only is the movie original, however, it also is a heartfelt piece of work that is poignant and warm. As the closing scenes flash across the screen at this viewing, I felt touched in the same way I am every time I watch the movie. It is original indeed, but it also has a big heart, and that's what brings me back to it.
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