++ scattered thoughts and random nostalgia ++

Went to see this one with GP and LB, somewhat against my will but guilted into it. Perhaps because I had low to no expectations, that's why I kinda enjoyed it in the end.

This movie is about a tax auditor named Harold Crick (played by Will Ferrell), who leads a very organized and structured but lonely life -- and the one day he started hearing a narrative voice when brushing his teeth. Not only was he the only one who could hear the voice (which was female and British), the voice was also very accurate in describing what he was doing and what he was feeling and so on. Basically, it was narrating his life as it was being lived.

Which is all fair and good until it announces that "little did he know", he was facing imminent death. Of course, Harold freaks out at this....but he's got some time as the voice stops -- unbeknowst to him, the narrator, actually an author named Karen Eiffel, has writer's block. Harold doesn't know how long he's got, so he begins on a journey to find the narrator with the help of a literature professor (played by Dustin Hoffman) and as the effort seems more and more futile and he gets no closer to finding out when he is going to die, begins to do all the things he's never ventured to do.

Playing Harold is said to be Will Ferrell's first serious role -- don't know how true that is, but definitely, a 180 turn from his usual crazy, over-the-top characters. He plays his character with a mostly deadpan look, and personally....I thought the role would suit someone else better. Like Ewan MacGregor. :D The screenplay, however, is engaging. The scenes with his love interest Ana (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) are written in the sweetest non-saccharine way -- the part where he brings 'flours' for her is cute!

However, my favourite characters have got to be the pairing of Emma Thompson as Karen Eiffel and Queen Latifah as the 'closer' employed by her publisher to help her finish the book. The scenes where they try to brainstorm a suitable 'death' for Harold are hilarious.

This movie is better enjoyed if you read a lot. Esp in the dialogues between Dustin Hoffman's character and Harold Crick, there is allusion to how stories are structured -- in the professor's words, they can be comedies or tragedies: to know his fate, Harold has to decide which one he's in.

Worth watching, and listen out for the dialogue and the little details. The ending was well-done too -- after all, how do you end a movie like this?