Stranger Than Fiction


Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"


Peter Bradshaw
Friday December 1, 2006
The Guardian

Screenwriter Zach Helm's comedy has some quirky points, but it's very sugary and sentimental, and feeble compared to the work of those who have done the same sort of thing better: Woody Allen or Charlie Kaufman.
Will Ferrell plays a tax inspector called Harold, a lonely bachelor devoted to dry, pernickety points of fiscal detail. When Harold hears a voice in his head narrating his life, it seems as though he's having a breakdown; however, this voice is that of reclusive and (allegedly) brilliant author Karen Eiffel, played by Emma Thompson, who is actually writing his life, and has a tragic end in mind.
After consulting with eminent literary critic Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), panicky Harold finds that he must make contact with Karen, persuade her to remove the splinter of ice that Graham Greene said was in every writer's heart, and genre-shift his story from tragedy to comedy. After all, he now has something to live for: Harold has fallen in love with someone he's investigating - the wacky proprietor of an alternative bakery, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal with a funky tattoo and a certain amount of anti-establishment attitude. (She is withholding some of her taxes in protest about corporate bailouts and discretionary campaign funding; on America's foreign policy, however, this radical evidently has no comment.)
Will Ferrell plays the movie with a look of glazed shock, and I guess if I heard Emma Thompson wittering away in my head, I'd have a look of glazed shock too. Ferrell and Thompson are such distinctive performers; a little of them goes a long way. Director Marc Forster keeps the pair within bounds, although Thompson's role demands many cutesy mannerisms denoting distracted writerliness and droll detachment, of which she makes a fair-sized meal.
Her publisher, incidentally, is supposed to have forced upon her the services of a fantastically implausible "assistant" (Queen Latifah) to coach her through writer's block: this is the film's only truly surreal departure from the normal universe.

allegedly- rzekomo
bailout- kaucja, poręczenie finansowe
breakdown- załamanie
cutesy- cukierkowaty
denote- oznaczać, określać
detachment- odłączenie, oddzielenie
discretionary- uznaniowy, zależny od uznania
distract- rozpraszać, odciągać
droll- zabawny
eminent- wybitny, znakomity
feeble- słaby
genre- gatunek (literacki, filmowy, etc.)
implausible- mało prawdopodobny, niewiarygodny
mannerism- manieryzm, maniera
panicky- panikarski, rozhisteryzowany
pernickety- wybredny, grymaśny, drobiazgowy
proprietor- właściciel
quirky- dziwaczny
reclusive- pustelniczy, samotny
splinter- odłamek
sugary- cukierkowy, przesłodzony
wacky- stuknięty, niobliczalny
withhold- wstrzymywać, odmawiać
witter- paplać, gadać bzdury


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