The ending may be mush, but the rest has surprising bite.

There just isn't enough wit or style or verve to pull it off. It takes a great premise and then not only fails to run with it, but also fails to go absolutely anywhere with it at all.

Stranger Than Fiction never rises above its eye-catching premise, ending up as nothing more than a great idea with absolutely nowhere to go.

There’s more than a touch of Charlie Kaufman absurdity to Zach Helm’s screenplay but it’s warmer and less caustic in the way it uses fantasy to plumb human emotions and examines the nature of storytelling.