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Stranger Than Fiction [Blu-ray] [2006]


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Editorial
Product Description

Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Will Ferrell, Queen Latifah

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk

Much was written about Will Ferrell's first "dramatic role" as Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who begins hearing a voice narrating his life. But Stranger Than Fiction is hardly a drama. However, what Ferrell does--like Jim Carrey before him in The Truman Show--is handle a toned-down character with genuineness and affection: you believe he is this guy. Crick leads a lonely life filled with numbers and routines. While at first he considers the voice a nuisance, Crick decides more action is needed when it speaks of "his demise." Enter Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who takes on the absurd notion with revelry, trying to find out what kind of book Crick's life is leading. It turns out that the voice Crick is hearing belongs to Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a very real--and troubled--author who is writing a book in which Crick is a fictional character. As usual with these things, the stuffed shirt learns to live a better life--Crick even falls for one of his audits, a brash baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Marc Foster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) has the right tone for the film, using great urban scenes (the unnamed city is Chicago) with interesting visualisations of Crick's world of numbers. He also directs Ferrell, Hoffman, and Gyllenhaal to their most charming performances (plus Linda Hunt and Tom Hulce pop up in two funny scenes). Ferrell succeeds in being a romantic lead you can root for; a scene where he eats Ana's freshly baked cookies is totally delightful without a hint of sarcasm. Screenwriter Zach Helm has two personal traits with his story: like Crick he followed his heart (he stopped re-writing scripts and only worked on his own) and like Eiffel, the final results are not a masterpiece, but good, and entertaining enough. Britt Daniel of the band Spoon worked on the dynamite soundtrack. --Doug Thomas



Sony Do Justice To An Amazing Film
Review date: 2008-03-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

Stranger Than Fiction is the story of Harold Crick; a maths genius who's working for the IRS. He's got to audit a beautiful baker, Ana Pascal, but he's got an annoying problem: he's got a female narrator following him around. Things get worse for Crick when she announces he'll die, and his only hope is a professor to save him, but the big mistake he's made is he's forgotten to free himself.

Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson are amazing in this film, Farrell showing that he can do serious roles as well as be very funny (Anchorman, Starsky And Hutch, just to name a few), and Thompson with her typical English Rose flair. I also enjoyed Queen Latifah's role, often overlooked by many and has redeemed her from her poor role in Taxi and Bringing Down The House. If you're expecting a lot of comical moments, then you won't be disappointed, but it's not a comedy as per say, and the bottom line is that it's more of a love story.

The blu-ray is a delight, beautiful colours and well produced by Sony (but what would we expect, this is their format?) - with it's crystal clear uncompressed PCM audio, 4.5mbps constant, and the 1.85:1 is quite nice too, as it's full screen for 16:9 displays. The video is 1080p and runs at a steady 25Mbps - which is pretty good. The blu-ray disk is the full BD50, which is great too, as you get ALL the extras from the DVD edition.

Talking about the extras, you get quite a few too: Actors in Search of Story, Building the Team, Words on a Page, On Location in Chicago, On the Set and Picture a Number: The Evolution of a GUI are excellent featurettes. There's also deleted scenes and an extended scene, and the trailer too.

If you love this film, have blu-ray, stop reading this and buy, you're in for a treat and is a flagship blu-ray release. If you like the film, then also consider renting this, it's an example to all the film companies on how to produce decent blu-ray releases.

4/5 for the film, 5/5 for the HD transfer

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Reviews


Improved by the whole HD thing
Review date: 2007-10-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

Pr'aps not an obvious candidate for the HD treatment this one but as it goes the film really benefits. It was shot in a kinda hyper-real style so that trippy scenes are washed-out, dream-like, and those don't upscale well from the standard DVD. Bang-in the Blu-Ray and everything changes: it is crystal clear, deeper somehow - that helps you break further into the film. I like that a lot, especially when the film itself is so special - don't go in expecting a comedy, it's actually an incredibly sweet and gentle love story.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Emma Thompson
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Dustin Hoffman
Queen Latifah
Will Ferrell

Creators:
Emma Thompson (Primary Contributor)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5050629127218
Binding: Blu-ray
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-04-30
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 109 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: French (Original Language)

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