College Girl brought this 2006 moviehome from the library today. It is a romantic comedy of a different sort. Somehow it had passed completely below my radar. She said she liked it the first time she saw it and thought I would like it too.

Will Ferrell’s performance is restrained (as an IRS agent), if you can believe it. He is joined by Emma Thompson (the novelist) and Queen Latifah (sent by her publisher to be her assistant), as well as Dustin Hoffman (a college professor of English), Maggie Gyllenhaal (owner of a bakery being investigated by Ferrell)…and there are interesting special effects (GUIs) (Graphic User Interface).

The basic premise is that Ferrell finds himself as a character in a life that is narrated by someone writing his story. And then he learns through this voice that his death is imminent. He goes to see a psychiatrist who says he is schizophrenic and wants him to take medication. And what if he is not schizophrenic and does not want to take medicine — then she supposed she’d send him to someone who knows literature. (I thought that was clever.)

Meantime the writer, whose novels always end in death for the main character, cannot decide how to kill him. The professor narrows down the possible writers. Side stories are neatly tied into the main story (young boy on a bike and young woman who gets a new job.) And Ferrell and Gyllenhaal find love.

How they find it; how Ferrell’s life changes; then, how the writer ends the story and the final words were inspiring.

I found it to be quirky and endearing.

Have you seen it? Did you like it?

Karin

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