Whoa. Trippy. I'd been wanting to see this since I heard the premise -- Will Farrell is playing a tax auditor who's also the lead character in writer Emma Thompson's book.
Problem is, the characters in her books always die. Awfully.
Harold Crick (that's the tax guy) wakes up one day, starts his strictly regimented routine, and hears a woman's voice narrating the story. Is he crazy? Is he real?
So it's a pretty existential story from the get-go. Surprisingly, though, it's doesn't fall into in the "look at me, I'm soooo existential and deep" trap that many other movies like this do. (I Love Huckabees, I'm looking at you.)
The movie stays as sweet as one of baker Maggie Gyllenhaal's cookies, even though a lot of the questions it considers are pretty grim -- as is Harold's sad little life. And most importantly, Will Farrell didn't make me want to reach into the screen and kill him, as he has done in almost every other performance of his I've seen. He played it straight, for once, and I was grateful.
Charming comedy, and it'll actually make you think. That's a good thing.
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