Harold Crick is a mild mannered IRS agent, who in the same week he is tasked with auditing bakery owner Ana Pascal’s bakery – he starts to hear his life ‘narrated’ by a voice in his head.
The voice, is Karen Eiffel, an award winning novelist who is struggling to end her latest novel, in which she needs to kill her protagonist… Harold Crick.
Direction
Directed by Marc Foster, it has a bright clean look about it.
I particularly enjoyed the ‘numbers on screen throughout’ as it matched Harold’s “IRS” persona.
Cast/Characters
This is by far my favourite of all of Will Ferrell’s performances. He blends the majority of the romantic drama extraordinarily well, I wish he would have done more dramatic roles. At times, he does require to use some of his comedic timing and ability – but they are used complementary to the narrative, such as when he is talking back to his narrator with people around him.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is adorable as Ana – who is the object of Harold’s affection, as he must audit her. They begin a love/hate relationship (the latter emotion which is from Ana to Harold). She does drop off the screen for a time when Harold tries to find out ‘who he is’ in the story.
Dustin Hoffman plays the literary professor Jules Hilbert, who Harold visits as he begins to discover that he is a character in a novel. It is also Hilbert who helps Harold discover that the woman writing his story, is a real life author – who lives in the same city as them.
Emma Thompson’s novelist Karen is introduced early in the film – and the twist that she and Harold live in the same universe isn’t revealed until later in the film.
Queen Latifah feel quite underused in the pointless role of Karen’s assistant.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
As the plot features a world renowned writer, and a professor of language – the screenplay itself is quite clever. It leans towards character, relationships and narrative rather than action or comedy.
The absurdism, where we discover that Karen’s novel about Harold, and Harold’s own life are part of the same universe is brilliantly written. It’s never explained how ‘what she writes’ is occurring in real time – and it doesn’t need to. When the two finally meet, she herself questions whether he actually has to die in her novel.
One theme I noticed during the film was the sense of identity. Howard discovering ‘who he is’ as he acknowledges that he might be a character in a novel. His quest to find out if he is in a tragedy, or a comedy is quite heartbreaking as his even his mortality is called into question. Ferrell delivers a nuanced performance, and even his haters should watch this to see how he handles juicier roles.
As Harold and Ava’s love story blossoms, and his own sense of identity grows, he yearns to grow. At one stage he starts to learn to play the guitar, and there is a sweet and tender moment where he sings while playing the guitar.
Overall
A fantastic, if little known film in Ferrell’s filmography. He brings a brilliant and more dramatic turn than his audience is used to.
A solid recomend.
4/5
If you’re able to, please “buy me a coffee”
Ryan's Movie Reviews 