Narration read by Liev Schreiber gives the film coherence and drama, but most of that comes from the images themselves.
The Boston Pops performed Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," with film narration read by all the living former presidents, except Ronald Reagan.
(Ignore the dopey "In a world" narration, read by a subpar American voice, which is always a drawback of American trailers for foreign films).
He has invented whole scenes for Hemingway's mother and father and, particularly in the narration (read by Mr. Naughton), some reflections on the writing life.
The narration, read by the actor David Ogden Stiers ("M*A*S*H") in the urgent, punctuated tone of an old-fashioned wartime newsreel, is writerly, perhaps too writerly.
The narration, read by Ken Howard, is often overblown, too, beginning with an observation about the first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.: "Maybe, just maybe, it would change everything".
At times the narration (read by the actor Liev Schreiber) becomes too schematic; it emphasizes the conflict between science and religion, although Galileo's fight was more specifically about the church and its grip on power.
As Ms. Yu points out, through voice-over narration read by the child actor Dakota Fanning and the more experienced Larry Pine, there are several intriguing parallels between Darger's fantasy world and his troubled life.
"Half a million people sailed past the new Statue of Liberty, then rode on special trains straight to the Wild West," says Ken Chowder's unusually well-written narration, read by Laura Linney.
