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Marc Forster’s rise to the top of his profession is filled with inspired stories that draw professional admiration. His IMDb page proudly reports the time he gave up a $500,000 paycheck because he didn’t believe in the material – material he feared would set his career back irrevocably if he had taken to directing it. He even turned down the chance to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and chose instead to helm the award winning Finding Neverland. I'm not sure whether that’s a draw, but Forster’s CV reads with a certain level of freshness and originality. It features some Oscar nominees that we wont cover in today’s article (Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland) to go along with some adaptations and sequels. Let's get to it.

From earliest to most recent, Forster’s last three flicks are Stranger Than Fiction, The Kite Runner, and Quantum of Solace.

Stranger Than Fiction

Like with most other screw-ball comedians, the public can be fairly divisive about Will Ferrell. And whether it was intended to be or not, Stranger Than Fiction is Ferrell’s appeal to all of his haters. It is his requisite subdued dramedy. The question is: would this be more Eternal Sunshine than Majestic? More Dead Poets Society than Patch Adams? More Punch Drunk Love than Spanglish?

Some people hate when their beloved funnymen take these dramatic detours. Here, Ferrell plays an IRS auditor who starts hearing a voice narrating his life. Emma Thompson, the narrator/author of his life has a crisis of conscience and must decide whether or not to kill off her lead character (Ferrell) once she realizes he is, in fact, more than a figment of her imagination.

Are you still with me? If you are, then you’re probably like me, and found Stranger Than Fiction to be both quirky and simultaneously pretty heartfelt. It is a perfectly quaint film that feels small, but has somehow stayed with me for quite some time since first seeing it. For my money, it’s Forster’s strongest work to date. He navigates a pretty murky narrative path and manages to construct a world that is oddly fictional but features many of the emotions of non-fiction life. Harold Crick the IRS auditor doesn’t sound like a protagonist to care about, but Foster daintily takes us through his daily routines, introduces us to his romantic interest, and we root for Crick to survive his pre-ordained ill-fate. Yes, Harold Crick is an oddball hero, but alas, that’s what unique movies are for. As the film quite literally addresses in a bit of existential analysis of itself, it knows not if it is a comedy or a tragedy, and that indecision actually gives it a very charming tone. It's not a home run, but then, I’m not sure it was meant to be. If you watch the movie through to the bittersweet ending, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Forster deserves bonus points for taming Ferrell’s most divisive quality – his loudness – but still affording Crick one or two nonsensical shouting moments.

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