A man lives a monotonous life, following the same patterns day after day, week after week, without any change. His life takes a dramatic turn when he hears a voice narrating his life.

Stranger Than Fiction follows the life of Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), an analytical IRS agent whose fascination with numbers guides his life. He counts brushstrokes while brushing his teeth and limits the seconds on his coffee breaks, while his colleagues view him as more calculator than human.

The strict patterns that rule his life come crashing down when he hears a voice only he can hear, a voice he comes to realize is narrating his life ?accurately and with a better vocabulary.?

The voice becomes annoying, but Crick puts up with it until one day it tells him of his inevitable death. After a psychiatrist (Linda Hunt) tells him he must have schizophrenia, he seeks advice from a literature professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman) who attempts to discover who is writing his life?s story.

Meanwhile, Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) struggles with writer?s block. She only writes tragedies in which the main character dies, but cannot think of how to kill her current protagonist. Eventually Crick realizes the identity of his author and seeks her out in an effort to save his life, for he has just recently begun to truly live.

When he began to hear Eiffel?s voice, he learns more about himself and stops judging the world around him by the numbers. He stops counting brushstrokes, fulfills his lifelong dream of learning how to play the guitar, and enters a relationship with a banker, Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), when he is sent to audit her tax return.

When Harold eventually tracks down Eiffel he finds that she has indeed figured out a way to kill who she, until recently, thought to be a product of her own imagination. Indeed the only reason Harold still lives is because she has not typed up her final draft. This drives the story onto the conclusion.

Stranger Than Fiction, though advertised as a comedy, touches on deeper aspects of life than most movies. It blends humor with serious comments about life and death. To paraphrase Hilbert, ?You?re absolutely going to die. If you escape this death another one will still find you.?

Though the acting is excellent, the real beauty of the movie is the ability to generate thought from viewers, it has the ability to entertain as well as stimulate.

Note: this movie is rated PG-13, so parents should use caution.