The ending may be mush, but the rest has surprising bite.

| Jun 5, 2023

There just isn't enough wit or style or verve to pull it off. It takes a great premise and then not only fails to run with it, but also fails to go absolutely anywhere with it at all.

| Aug 22, 2018

Stranger Than Fiction never rises above its eye-catching premise, ending up as nothing more than a great idea with absolutely nowhere to go.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2007

An uncommonly plastic bit of Hallmark sentiment-mongering, with exactly the kind of New Age psychobabble ending youâ(TM)d expect.

| Original Score: 1/6 | Feb 3, 2007

Ferrell rules in this film. I take back my words of prejudice. This is the smartest film in town.

| Jan 26, 2007

Screenwriter Zach Helm's comedy has some quirky points, but it's very sugary and sentimental, and feeble compared to the work of those who have done the same sort of thing better: Woody Allen or Charlie Kaufman.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Instead of finishing with a bang it peters out, but this existential yarn is still fresh and funny enough to justify taking two hours out of your life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 30, 2006

It might be Charlie Kaufman lite, but this is a great date movie for the discerning - smart, ingenious and heartwarming.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2006

Such a featherweight nothing that it engenders only indifference.

| Original Score: C | Nov 19, 2006

A film well worth seeing and savoring.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2006

Original as it is winning, I found the movie to be a pure joy, easily one of the most entertainingly spellbinding love stories I've had the pleasure to enjoy in quite some time.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 13, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction seems like an old episode of the Twilight Zone, and the idea would have worked better as one of Rod Serling's half-hour epistles on human foibles.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 10, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction is both about a novel and like a novel; you eagerly await the turning of the pages.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 10, 2006

It doesn't coast on its premise but follows where it leads, which is into some serious territory. What might have been a joke with a tagged-on sentimental ending becomes instead a sensitive movie that affirms the value of life.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2006

With its musings on free will and God, the story may not be original, but caring about its hero is automatic for the audience. That's more than most movies can say.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 10, 2006

It has a nifty premise and outstanding performances from Ferrell, as the protagonist-in-progress, and Emma Thompson, as his blocked creator.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction might be film, but it moves like a novel: a literate, unhurried tale marked by softly wrought reflections on the self-made life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 10, 2006

So, in lieu of the usual cookie-cutter movie, we at least get the cookie itself, a nice-light treat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2006

A wondrously funny modern fairy tale, Stranger than Fiction manages to blend romance, satire and fantasy into a story that's both fully satisfying and patently absurd.

| Nov 10, 2006

A comedy that takes itself too seriously to be truly enjoyed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 10, 2006