Thursday, November 16, 2006

Sick

Hi everyone. We've been a little sick with a nasty cold around here. Not the best week for it.

Yesterday, Sarah and I got to go out for a movie date. We get about two of these a year, so it was an event. If you ever want to just see and enjoy a movie in the theater, go to the late afternoon matinee on Wednesday (and avoid the kid movies and that crowd). Sarah and I practically had the theater to ourselves. Another couple came in after us during the previews, but the projector people still turned on the lights in the first few minutes of the movie, presumably to see if they needed to continue showing it.

The movie was Stranger than Fiction. As an aside, "Two thumbs way up" will always get me to a movie. I pay close attention to Ebert [spoiler alert!] and friends because they aren't afraid to give thumbs down to crappy or even dull, marginal movies, and because they at least have some editorial point of view. And they were right this time, this movie rules my world. I would see it again today if I could.

The acting was great. Will Ferrell, in particular, is just perfect. It's well-written and honest, and smart.

Unfortunately, everything else I want to say about this awesome movie would require me to spoil the ending. So go see the movie a few times, then hover over the following series of asterisks, full of spoilers, to see what I think. I had to use short sentences so the hovering works in Firefox, but be assured that there are a few paragraphs behind all these thoughts.

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2 comments:

Reel Fanatic said...

I never thought I would go see a movie in which you see Will Ferrell in almost every frame and enjoy it so much ... I was most impressed by how he managed to tone it down so much but not lose any of his comic timing

Dan Lewis said...

One of the trailers was a bit of a head fake in this regard because Will is shouting "Shut up!" at the movie voiceover guy.

Having seen it, though, I almost hesitate to call it a comedy. Certainly it's not a Ferrell-esque farce by any stretch.

I could see doing this plot as a farce too, a more highbrow "Final Destination" where Ferrell gets paranoid and frantic as the author chain smokes and continually tries and fails to do him in. A kill-him-off comedy with a drama about creativity behind the curtain. Needless to say, I don't think it would've been nearly as good as the actual movie.