67
Metascore
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliStranger than Fiction is a wonderful cinematic experience - a welcome way to spend a chilly autumn evening.
- 75Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsWhen Ferrell and Hoffman do their thing together, a charming bit of whimsy becomes something more. It becomes really, really funny.
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThis is a Ferrell you've never seen before, nailing a role that calls for breakneck humor in the final race against the clock and touching gravity in the love scenes with Gyllenhaal.
- 70VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthySometimes becomes too self-consciously clever, and it doesn't entirely resolve its own central dilemma. But it remains inventive and funny to the end, features fine performances from Will Ferrell and especially Emma Thompson.
- 70TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissA more sensitive Ferrell in a script that plays like Charlie Kaufman Lite: that should send up breakthrough and Oscar signals. It doesn't quite, though. The movie is clever, but a little too pleased with its own clockwork intricacy.
- 70L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorTeems with ideas both literary and existential, which might make it unbearably precious, were it not redeemed by woozy charm and some serious acting from Will Ferrell.
- A good movie but not a great one, Stranger Than Fiction is reminiscent of the films of Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) but lacks that writer's conceptual rigor and imaginative power.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAn eminently easy-to-watch piece of one-joke pop japery, is a movie that mimics the I'm-a-character-in-my-own-life metaphysical playfulness of "The Truman Show."
- 67Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerLike Jim Carrey, Ferrell seems to think that the way to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor is to drain himself of everything that audiences love about him.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceStranger Than Fiction merely layers whimsy upon whimsy. As written, Harold Crick is no more convincing a human being than he is an IRS agent; Kay Eiffel's writing, supposedly good enough to inspire the career-long devotion of a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), sounds as dully declamatory as movie-trailer narration.