Gimmie "Fiction"

It seems that each broad comic star of the past decade or so has an adored indie film to their resume. Jim Carrey has his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adam Sandler has his Punch Drunk Love and now Will Ferrell has his with Stranger Than Fiction.

It was a weird movie to sit through. Not because of the movie itself. But because I went alone and lo-and-behold one of my freelance clients (who just told me my services were no longer needed - not fired, just no work) came in with his wife. He has a framed copy of the Ten Commandments in his office, so if there was any movie I thought he was going to see, it would have been The Nativity. Yes, that's stereotyping, but some folks are total embodiments of stereotypes.

I was envisioning the way the movie was going to lay itself out. I would be laughing out loud at the funny bits while this guy would sit there blankly. But fortunately, not only was the crowd great (a crowd that laughed at the genuinely funny parts and shut up for the rest of the movie), but he and his wife really got into the movie as well.

Emma Thompson is great - she truly looked like someone who lived off of nicotine and coffee and a four-hour-a-night sleep regiment. In some movies, you see someone like a very-made-up Anne Hathaway bemoan that she hasn't slept in days, but she looks truly awake. But with Thompson's character, you see the baggy eyes, the scuffled hair, the busted capillaries on her cheeks. It's a great performance.

The ending was a bit too sweet for my taste. I won't give it a way, but it still will probably end up on my 'Top Ten' of the year.