Just saw Stranger Than Fiction this weekend, and I must say it's probably the best Charlie Kaufman film not written by Charlie Kaufman. It was actually written by newcomer Zach Helm and directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland). Will Ferrell gives his best performance to date as Harold Crick, a milquetoast obsessive-compulsive IRS tax auditor who one day begins hearing a voice who narrates every single humdrum aspect of his life. That voice is Kay Eiffel (played by Emma Thompson), a reclusive and cynical novelist trying to finish her novel about a man named... Harold Crick. Meanwhile, as the voice begins to disrupt his usual routines, Harold seeks help from an eccentric literature professor (wonderfully played by Dustin Hoffman) in trying to find out if his whole life will end up as a comedy or a tragedy, while finding love with the anti-establishment baker he's trying to audit (Maggie Gyllenhaal). But just as his life seems to get much better, Kay finally emerges from her writer's block and has found a way to kill off Harold Crick, just like the main characters in her past books.

Aside from the Kaufman and Pirandello influences in storytelling, the film also borrows elements from Joe Versus the Volcano (male protagonist becomes a hero in facing his own impending death), Harold and Maude (a person with a fascination for death and gloom rediscovers the passion for life from another person), Groundhog Day (protagonist goes through a period of self-improvement and finds a newfound appreciation in life brought about by a strange disturbance) and even Brazil (bureaucrat escapes from his humdrum existence and undergoes a series of surreal misadventures). The music in the film is also worth listening, a mixture of the old and the new. Check out the scene with Will's character playing Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World" on the guitar.

Also would like to add the fact that Tom Hulce was almost unrecognizable in his first film role in years.