A, one of the best movies of the year.

Personally, I was alittle disappointed as after seeing the trailer you knew about 90% of the story. Other than that it was OK to good but nothing overly special.

The movie does have one great line

As Dustin Hoffman is the first to break the news, The Book is perfect, I am sorry but you have to die.

and there is a totally surprising and imaginative ending

after everyone agrees, the book is perfect and he must die, the author get soft and lets him live, now really who would have ever thought that. I really would have liked a different ending.

one other thing

as everyone said the boy had to live, I thought the boy was going to have some meaning to either main characters.

This may sound crazy, but:

10/10 (A+)

I thought it was absolutely flawless. Will Ferrell and especially Emma Thompson gave Oscar-worthy performances. I actually cried at some points. It's easily one of the best of the year.

Agreed. I'll admit that even I got teary-eyed at some points.

I'll keep my thoughts short since I have a headache. As I was walking out of the theater, I heard a couple of people keep saying that they expected the movie to be funnier. I just wanted to punch them in the face. The movie isn't about being funny or dramatic, it's just about living your life. This is one of the few movies I've seen where you can't really assign it into a genre. Is it funny? Yes. Is it dramatic? Yes. It's not really a dramedy though if that makes sense. All you have to know is that it's a great film, and easily Will Ferrel's best film to date. Anchorman is still one of the funniest film's I've seen, but this is the better film.

A+

Stranger Than Fiction is a surprisingly great film. It was an excellent comedy/drama. The biggest complaint I have about it is I was really annoyed how many times Will Ferrell was yelling at Emma Thompson's voice in his head. It got a bit tiresome. The performances are exceptional with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, and Will Ferrell all turning out Oscar-worthy performances. I absolutely loved Maggie Gyllenhaal's speach about why she became a baker. It reminded me of the wine speach Virgina Madsen gave in one of 2004's best films, Sideways. When I left the theater, I found the ending disappointing. I heard nothing but raves about the excellent ending, and at first glance, I didn't think it was excellent. I don't want to give anything away but after I thought about it after awhile, i realized it was really a perfect ending to a fantastic film. This is one of the best films of the year and I really hope it'll be recognized come award season. Especially when it comes to the Acting catagories!

9/10 (A-)

A very solid motion picture that blends comedy and poignancy surprisingly well. I had expected the film to be funny, but was not expecting to be touched as much as I was. Will Ferrell easily delivers the best performance of his career, shaping Harold into a likeable figure without ever going over-the-top. The beguiling Maggie Gyllenhaal is a delight, Emma Thompson is amusing as a very eccentric author, and Dustin Hoffman and Queen Latifah provide capable support. Recommended. B+

Wow. I had heard about the premise of the film some time ago (I believe it was while randomly searching through HSX) and have been anticipating it ever since. I had guessed early on that it wouldn't be "Anchorman" funny. The humor would be more subtle or witty (which it was). Those thoughts were confirmed by the reviews here and elsewhere. But I had no idea it would be that dramatic. I felt compelled at certain points in the film to just cry. And I'm not entirely sure why. It wasn't really emotionally packed; it was emotional, but not to any overwhelming extent. I guess you could say it's a testament to the direction, acting, and overall feel of the production (which, to be honest, seems above average at first, but really was quite good in retrospect). All of the actors deliver in their performance...except perhaps Queen Latifah, which is more to do with her limited source material than anything else.

But really, the coolest thing about the movie (besides the floating numbers) was how it showed how anything, no matter how little, affects your life.

A-, borderline A depending on how well it sits with me over the next few days.

Very good. the acting is very good, Hoffman is hysterical in almost every scene he's in. Theres a lot of good to think about this film. Not the best of the year, and not an oscar performer but a very entertaining film from a good pedigree of actors.

A-

Will probably get around to re-seeing this again as I want to catch some of the performances mainly Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman. I was just so disappointed with the story that I couldn't pay enough attention to the supporting characters. I just thought the story was too standard and didn't bring any surprises or anything new. Will plays an IRS agent who gets yelled at by everyone, not much of a surpise, and he hears these voices which everyone thinks he is crazy, and he is a numbers nut who counts this and that, and on that watch???, etc. I just didn't like the set-up. Also, I think that Emma Thompson role who too overacted and didn't really have any real meat and Queen Latifah role was basically a wasted character.

If I wasn't stuck in the front row of a 100% full pre-screening, I might have actually shed tears. But as I found myself somewhat outside the movie due to the crick in my neck, I wasn't able to fully appreciate all the emotional moments.

But I LOVED this movie. For me as a writer, it's a movie that is definitely well appreciated. Loved, loved, loved it. I'm totally buying it when it comes out on DVD.

Grade: A+

A- ... only cause it has a tendency to slow down a bit too much and the trailers make you think that the narration is much more than it really is...

Fantastic film. The climactic almost-ending got to me.

Anyone notice how the boy in the bike and the bus driver lady always appeared in Emma Thompson's fantasies... together with water? (The waterhose, the river...)

A-

I agree. There were times during the movie that I was wondering where the narration was.

Excellent flick. Will Ferrell has proved that he can move into a more serious genre seamlessly. Though I liked this movie much better, it reminded me of how I felt watching Jim Carey in The Majestic.

I didn't realize that the creepy, hippie HR guy is Amadeus. lol

Lots of Oscar winners/nominees in the small cast.

for me also, that is a good point, it slowed down and crawled a bit too much but based on your A-, I guess it didn't bother you as much as it did me.

A-HA! So *that's* why that guy kept seeming familiar to me. I just couldn't put my finger on his name nor what I would have seen him in before...

Good catch!

Joy

Maybe it's just because I've been really out of it all day but I feel like there was something I missed about the ending. It's puzzling, I loved the film and thought there was this great build up to something excellent. The movie's message really hit me the right way and I walked out feeling great, but... I was sorta befuddled. Was there some sort of deeper reason why everyone thought the original ending was so profound and incredible? Because once he did something meaningful in his life he died? I really, really need to see this again, because I'm not sure how I can grade a movie where I loved almost every scene but felt like the thing the entire film was structured around didn't make much sense.

I'm going to assume that the original ending wasn't simply just of him dying, but that there would have been more of the story to come that we would never know.

Makes sense... This is one of those films that really requires a second viewing for me. I have a feeling that my mood (or lack of) made a big impact.

Me and my roommate, who loves pretty much everything no matter how bad, just got back from this and we agree:

This was unfathomably awful. Except for Maggie Gyllenhaal.

And now we're back out to Casino Royale.

it was the one flaw in the whole film. the actual story she was writing really had no real plot accept showing a man that had a mundane life and tried changing and finally dying from a freak accident. one could argue he was trying to do something good but the film never pointed to the fact that he didn't do that anyway. her story wasn't so good at all ... it was just good considering what was happening in reality ... thats where they kind of messed up

I assumed that there was a bunch of stuff that we weren't shown and will never know going on in the book. Will Ferrell's character said at one point that there are other parts of the story, but he only knows about the parts that she's narrating about him. So we'll never know what the book was actually about at all.

I liked it, though I think the marketing was off, it had a more serious tone they I unexpected (but in a good way, ala The Family Stone). I like the humour, alot of it was subtle.

Big points for featurning two of my favorite spoon songs.

Yeah I agree here, the book and narrative was just to serve the movie, not much on it's own.