Taking a page from the work of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Zach Helm’s screenplay about a man who keeps hearing a narrator in his head is brought to the screen by director Marc Forster (MONSTER’S BALL) as both a parable about living one’s life more fully and the tormented process of a writer. It’s really not as innovative an idea as Kaufman’s ADAPTATION or BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but the film is intriguing with solid performances from the entire cast, especially lead Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Harold Crick (Ferrell, ANCHORMAN) is an IRS auditor, who pretty much wakes up, goes to work, comes home, goes to bed and then repeats the process all over again. He meticulously plans out his day on a perfect time frame. One day he starts hearing a voice in his head that is narrating his actions. When the voice warns him of his emanate death, he is frightened and turns to literary expert Prof. Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman, RAIN MAN), who tries to determine if Harold is in either a comedy or tragedy. Meanwhile, Harold is assigned to investigate the case of baker Amy Pascal (Gyllenhaal, WORLD TRADE CENTER), who only paid part of her taxes because she objects to paying for things like wars. Of course, she hates Harold at first, but soon falls for his innocence and dry wit. As this is going on, writer Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson, DEAD AGAIN) is looking for a way to kill the main character in her next novel, which happens to be Harold Crick. She is a very depressive type, who isn’t too receptive to her book publisher strapping her with an unwanted aide named Penny Escher (Queen Latifah, CHICAGO).
