Stranger Than Fiction Special Edition (Blu-ray) Official AVSForum Review

( Max score: 100 )

85

Film Synopsis:

Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick, a lonely IRS agent whose mundane existence is transformed when he hears a mysterious voice narrating his life. With the help of Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), Harold discovers he's the main character in a novel-in-progress and that the voice belongs to Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), an eccentric author famous for killing her main characters in creative ways. Harold must quickly track down Eiffel and stop her before she conjures up a way to finish him off.

My Take:

There have been few of Will Ferrell's films that have appealed to me. Those who read my review of his most recent film are already aware of this. Its funny but I find Jim Carrey's movies to be very much the same. Anyway, Stranger than fiction is a movie that garnered a rather tepid reaction from me when I saw it theatrically. I wasn't sure what to expect going in and the concept just didn't work for me at the time. I did feel as though I needed to give it another look but quite frankly I never got around to it. After watching it again I came to appreciate it and found it rather entertaining. I thought that Ferrell did a very good job in his portrayal of the compulsive, exacting, and somewhat morose Harold Crick. From a conceptual standpoint, I thought this film was smart, coherent and interesting. Obviously it stretches the limits of imagination but that's okay as long as it succeeds at creating characters that we care about as part of a cohesive story. It was great to watch Harold as he slowly evolved over the course of the film. As the central figure in the story it was imperative that Ferrell allow Harold to draw the audience in on an emotional level and he certainly did that. I liked the interaction between Harold and Ana. Maggie Gyllenhaal was well cast in the role and the chemistry between herself and Ferrell worked. The pacing seems perfectly attuned to the odd nature of the story and its character establishment. I really like how it becomes sort of a romanticized fantasy that depicts how life can pass you by unless you take the time to stop and figure out what is most important to you and go for it. Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman are terrific in their brief but integral roles. I would like to see more of this side of Will Ferrell as an actor because I really enjoyed his performance here.

Parental Guide:

The rating is for some disturbing images, sexuality, brief language and nudity.

Audio: 82

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Video: 88

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Stranger than fiction Special Edition comes to Blu-ray Disc featuring 1080p MPEG-2 encoded video that has an average bitrate of 31 mbps and lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 channel audio that has an average bitrate of 2.3 mbps.

This disc utilizes the same video encoding as the version released last year on Blu-ray. The 1.85:1 framed video features good high definition detail and resolute sharpness which brings out lots of subtle nuance in close and medium camera shots. The long range shots of the city look just as good with excellent dimensional quality and crisp object detail. Colors are noticeably reserved with a limited palette that seems a perfect match with the tone of the film. They aren't overly vibrant but are rendered quite well and appear naturally pleasing. Contrast is elevated which gives bright images a punchy, dynamic quality while blacks are respectably deep with good gradational structure in dark areas and shadows. Fleshtones are delineated well but tonally speaking they aren't as natural looking as I would like. I saw some minor background noise in one or two scenes but otherwise thought this was a very clean transfer. The original release featured a lossless PCM soundtrack. Sony offers a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound mix here and it sounds great. This is a dialogue driven film so its ability to clearly render that aspect is important. Voices were reproduced with transparent realism and lucid texture that appropriately dominated the front soundstage. This surround mix properly utilized the sound platform to derive the films elements. I found it to be subtly engaging as it recreated the many acoustic sounds associated with environments portrayed onscreen. The rear soundfield offers an ambient rich mixture of background sounds and music that characterizes the impression and mood of the scene. I was impressed with its implementation and how good it sounded.

Bonus Features:

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• Director and cast commentary
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• Filmmakers commentary

Featurettes:

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2. Actors in search of a story
   
3. Bulding the team
   
4. Words on a page
   
5. Picture a number: The evolution of the G.U.I.
   
6. On the set
   
7. On location in Chicago

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• (HD) 9 deleted and extended scenes
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• (HD) BD Previews: Talledega nights: The ballad of Ricky Bobby, Lakeview Terrace
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• BD-Live enabled

Final Thoughts:

I found that Stranger than fiction had more appeal for me the second time around. I thought that Will Ferrell gave a strong performance that when coupled with the somewhat unusual but well written and directed story was entertaining and a little thought provoking. Sony has re-released it on Blu-ray Disc in a special edition package that offers a few additional bonus features and BD-Live access. It includes the same MPEG-2 video encoding as the original Blu-ray release and a now features a Dolby TrueHD lossless soundtrack. Having not seen the original Blu-ray version I can't offer a quality comparison however I thought that overall quality in both regards was excellent. I honestly can't see a compelling reason for an upgrade from the earlier Blu-ray release but for fans who don't already own this film in high definition this is a no brainer.