(2006) This is a movie I like. An obsessive-compulsive who lives a solitary existence, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), a man of numbers and calculations but few words, is an IRS auditor with a unique wristwatch. "On Wednesday, Harold's wristwatch changed everything," says a British-accented voice inside Harold's head.

Distracted by the internal narrative describing his actions and thoughts, Harold misses his bus on his way to work in Chicago. He tells his only friend (Tony Hale): "Dave, I'm being followed … by a woman's voice."

Taxman Harold informs Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal), anarchist (who refuses to pay 22% of her federal income taxes because of her opposition to national defense and corporate bailouts) and owner of a bakery, he's in her shop to perform an audit (while the voice only he can hear fantasizes about his being naked with her).

Reclusive novelist Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson) has not published a book in ten years; she's struggling with writer's block in her efforts to complete her current manuscript, Death and Taxes. Her publisher sends Penny Escher (Queen Latifah), an author's assistant (having eleven years of experience of finishing 35 books with more than 20 authors). The problem? "I don't know how to kill Harold Crick," admits Eiffel.

Employing GUI (graphic user interface - pronounced "gooey") to illustrate on the screen Harold's mental mathematical processes, director Marc Forster transforms Zach Helm's screenplay into a fascinating film worth watching repeatedly for its grand quirkiness and subtle touches. (By the way, two of the IRS employees, T.J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz, comedians with Second City in Chicago, appear in Sonic drive-thru TV commercials; also there's a film clip from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.)

Following a session with Dr Cayly (Tom Hulce) in which Harold's told to take "vaca time," Harold's wristwatch, in a desperate attempt to communicate, suddenly stops just as he hears the third-person-omniscient voice pronounce "his imminent death," after which the narrative ceases.

Distraught back in his apartment, Harold turns frantic, throwing objects in an effort to revive the in-real-time chronicling of his life: "Say something!" Dr Mittag-Leffler, a psychiatrist, diagnosis his condition as schizophrenic, to which Harold objects that the narrator isn't telling him what to do but what he's already just done. She then recommends that he consult a professor of literary theory, Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), an expert on the expression "little did he know." In explaining his strange situation, Harold says of the narrator: "She doesn't know I can hear her."

Once again the narrator resumes her inner monologue as Harold rides a city bus; noticing Ana's getting aboard, he makes flirtatious attempts at dispelling her impression of him as "a real creep."

While Prof Hilbert takes Harold (whom he occasionally calls "Howard") through 23 questions in an examination to rule out stories he's not in, Karen imagines the various possibilities of jumping off a building, a car wreck off a bridge, terminal diseases for bringing her character to his end. In an exploration of possible motives and ambitions for Harold as a novel's protagonist, the only thing Harold can think of to say to Prof Hilbert is that he once want to "learn to play the guitar." Prof Hilbert suggests to Harold that he keep track of the bias of incidents to determine if he's in a comedy or a tragedy.

Back at Ana's bakery, Harold spends a grueling day going through her financial records and receipts, after which she feels sorry for what she's put him through and offers him an oven-fresh (almost gooey) cookie with a glass of milk along with an account of how she went from being a student in Harvard Law to becoming a baker ("to make the world a better place with cookies"); but when she tries to hand him more of the cookies for him to take home, he declines by explaining that as her auditor he can't accept gifts. Harold realizes after reviewing his notebook: "I think I'm in a tragedy."

When the plot like a wrecking ball comes crashing through his apartment, Harold's made to understand from Prof Hilbert that he has a choice between eating pancakes and living his life: "Just go make it the one you wanted."

Harold begins sharing meals with Dave, quits counting objects in his immediate environment, buys a used Fender Stratocaster, and makes amends with Ana, bringing her flours for her bakery (ignoring auditor-auditee protocol).

In the mean time, Karen has hit upon just the thing: a "simply, ironic, possibly heartbreaking" end to her book. "You have to die," Prof Hilbert informs Harold after reading the manuscript, with the conclusion not yet typed: "It's her masterpiece…. Poetic and meaningful … but the story goes on forever."

Hold on a second: if you've been keeping track of the bias of incidents thus far, wouldn't you expect the movie's a comedy? I'm going to watch it again.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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