Will Ferrell plays a straight bat in the game of life, for once

That's a nice, whimsical touch, as is the guitar serenade that leads to a fumbling, ardent first kiss. There are also a few moments of pleasantly jarring absurdity that deepen the film's evident debt to Charlie Kaufman, author of Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But there is also something soft and unfinished about the movie; it wanders about in its own conceit, collecting stray moments of intelligence or feeling without adding up to very much. The ending is a nicely executed bit of metaphysical farce, in which all the strands of Harold's fate converge, but the final notes are more than a little false. Rather than jarring or deepening your perceptions of the world, Stranger Than Fiction settles into a cozy, comforting realm that really isn't very strange at all.