Now here’s a surprise from Hollywood – a movie with a truly original and unique premise. In Stranger Than Fiction IRS agent Harold Crick, played by a brilliant Will Ferrell, lives a controlled life. Each day is exactly the same as the last timed to the very second including when he wakes and sleeps, how many strokes he takes to brush his teeth, and how many steps he takes (and what pace he has to run) to just catch his bus. One morning he wakes up to find his life is being narrated by a VOICE which is seemingly able to describe and predict his very thoughts and actions. When it declares his imminent death Harold must seek out the voice to try and change his destiny. Along the way Harold finds himself falling in love with baker Ana Pascal (played by a prickly but strangely adorable Maggie Gyllenhaal) whose taxes he audits during this crisis.

The voice turns out to be once celebrated novelist Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) who has been working on an ending for her latest book, Death and Taxes, for 10 years. She must think of a way to kill her character, which turns out to be Harold, but doesn’t realise that every word she writes is played out in reality in Harold’s life. Unfortunately for Harold all her books end the same way – the hero dies just when they have ultimate happiness in their hands.

Harold Click is endearingly vulnerable and sweet. He is also romantic in a way only an IRS agent can be (in one especially touching scene he presents Ana with a box of “flours”) and its no wonder that Ana finds it hard to resist him.

The movie doesn’t contain the usual silliness you’d expect from a Will Ferrell comedy but laugh you will nevertheless. The charm in the movie is the unexpectedness of the moments but to say too much would give away the unique quirkiness that the movie delivers. Will Ferrell is truly the star of this show and as funny as Anchorman and Talladega Nights were its nice to see that he can tackle a “straight” project and still deliver the laughs.

In sum (or two actually), loved it!