Right from the first minute of the preview -- establishing that one Harold Crick suddenly hears his life narrated by a novelist -- I got the impression that Will Ferrell was attempting what Jim Carrey did with The Truman Show and Bill Murray did with Groundhog Day: a sci-fi/fantasy comedy-drama just philosophically serious enough that we may finally consider the star something other than a full-time clown. I welcomed this prospect, as Ferrell's humor has always struck me as about half decent and half obnoxious. (Like some other comedians I could name, he fares better in voice roles.)
It turns out that STF doesn't spend much time trying to be funny. As absurd as the above, unexplained premise is -- not to mention the addition of an apparently sapient watch that goes on the fritz to affect Harold's actions -- the story quickly introduces some dark ways for his setup to suck. In particular, the narrator indicates that Harold is going to die very soon. From there, it's a question of whether to go quietly into that good night or struggle to find an escape. Yeah, he spends more time doing the latter.
Don't get me wrong; it's not all bad for Harold. He starts out with a life so boring it's perversely interesting: an IRS auditor who counts just about everything for an exceptionally rigid routine (animated diagrams help spice up the visuals). The narration inspires him to try a lot of new things, including, improbably enough, the courtship of a baker who openly flouts tax law (Maggie Gyllenhaal).
Personally, if I heard a voice narrating my life and determined that no one else could hear it, I'd assume hallucinations via schizophrenia or something like it. Harold receives that snap diagnosis from a psychiatrist but flatly refuses to entertain the possibility -- for no valid reason. I guess the filmmakers could think of no other way to move the story along, but why even visit a shrink if you're convinced it's not a mental phenomenon?
Harold's next stop is a literary theorist, Prof. Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman, with perhaps the most screen time he'd had in ages). Hilbert may be the quirkiest character in the movie, rather quick to believe Harold without compelling evidence. His ideas make a certain kind of sense in an academic context, but we sometimes have to question his grip on reality -- even the twisted reality of STF. If he's the source of the film's most highbrow amusement, he also connects to the most lowbrow amusement: His part-time lifeguard position provides an excuse for him and Harold to walk past a bunch of naked old men, having nothing to do with the conversation. Thanks a lot, director Marc Foster.
Before Harold and Hilbert figure out who the author is, the audience gets several sneak peeks of her: Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson). Despite her past success in book sales, she has an arguably worse life than Harold: a rude, paranoid, publicly unpresentable chain smoker who thinks constantly of death and may wish it on herself. Her new secretary (Queen Latifah) pretty much takes it all in stride. It should be no spoiler to say that she eventually meets Harold, who basically returns the favor of inspiring a change in life perspective.
I'm glad I watched STF, but I can't help thinking it could have been handled a little better in terms of humor and apparent intellect. Maybe they should've put Spike Jonze at the helm. He certainly has a way with strangeness.
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