Those who've long doubted Will Ferrell's ability to dig into a meaty, dramatic role should look no further than the charming indie film that is 2006's Stranger than Fiction, an existential drama that takes Ferrell's chaotic energy and drives it inward to tell the story of how we're all just trying our best to move our lives beyond the mundane.
Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS agent who finds himself the subject of an omniscient narrator's constant ramblings, as if he's the protagonist of a book, with his life now under the microscope of some grander literary purpose. Worse still, not only can he hear this mysterious narrator describing his every move, she also predicts his imminent death, sending Harold Crick's life in some unusual and exciting directions. Through an absurdist dramatic lens, Ferrell's gift of rampant mania is put to extremely good use as a man trying to discover whether he's trapped in a comedy or a tragedy.
Though he's often known as a champion comedy star, Stranger than Fiction proves that Ferrell's dramatic skills are not to be underestimated.
