Dan in Real Life

No Daniel, this is not about you. But I did see a fantastic movie last Friday night with a main character that shares your name. "Dan in Real Life" was one of the best movies I've seen this year. Humor, love, family, death and "drama" all brought together in a wonderful package. It was in several moments very difficult for me to watch and it struck a few chords that probably wouldn't have hit their mark if I had seen this 10 years ago. (Probably because I would have been on my mission and feeling really bad about watching a movie).

The Plot - Dan (Steve Carrel - The Office) is a middle aged man who lost his wife four years ago. He writes a column about parenting teenagers, but in "real life" its much more difficult to practice what you preach. Dan is taking his three daughters to a family reunion and meets a woman (Juliette Binoche - Chocolat) the first day on his trip. Its love at first sight and after an hour of chatting, he gets permission to call her even though she just started seeing someone. Unfortunately, that someone is his brother who brings her to the family reunion later that afternoon. The movie is then filled with fun romance/family chaos over the secret love triangle.

I was very impressed with Steve Carrel that he could maintain being very funny in a serious character. Reminds me of Jim Carey and the Truman Show breakthrough. Most of the movie seemed well cast. I heard they ditched Jessica Alba for Binoche, which was a good move. She has a certain emotional aura that makes it believable that Dan could go head over heels for her in a couple of hours. However I've read several other reviews that put this movie well beneath Binoche and the idea that she could be dating the hated Dane Cook (comedian). But I thought it worked well. She liked Cook's character because he was using Dan's lines from his books and columns to woo her. Once she found the real source of inspiration she would go for the real thing. As a result, I thought the casting worked quite well, despite this not being some sexual French drama of Oscar proportions beneath one of the most "luminous" women of all time.

Another aspect of the film that I really liked was seeing a family have lots of fun together. I read several other supposedly "high-brow" reviews where the family was decried for being too cheesy and reviewers would rather slit their wrists that deal with people like that. (WOW. Good thing most of these "happy" people are not procreating - they just love angst, and frankly I'm not a fan of angst 24/7). But was the family cheesy? Yes, but THAT'S WHEN YOU HAVE THE BEST FUN! They had crossword puzzle competitions, talent shows, football games, kayaking... nothing perfect, but good times. This had to be one of the most positive portrayals of family life I've seen in years (which is why some people hated it so much). Ah, to each his own.

What made this difficult to watch is that it made me consider what would happen if I became a widower with two girls. How hard it would be to relate to them without mom around to interpret their actions. Especially love sick teenagers - YOU ARE THE DESTROYER OF LOVE!!! That title is coming to me in about 9 years. Love isn't a feeling - its an ability. And if that's true, I must be a superhero.

Overall, what I liked the most is that this movie had me flat-out laughing several times. Hard. And it was good humor. This is definitely a daddy-daughter movie that I can re-watch in the years to come with my girls and hope things never get that way.