Recently Billie and I saw Dan in Real Life. Steve Carell is the title character, Dan, a single father of three girls and a columnist who writes witty prose on life as a whole. I can't say that many movies ever get to me, or even stay with me a few days after I watch them. But this one had some really great qualities that I could definitely appreciate.
To start with, Dan's a widower as his wife passed away from illness. We find this out a little into the movie, but you kind of already new it by the way they talk together. Do you know how refreshing that is? Immediately I was drawn to this man because he did not choose what had happened to his family, but he was doing it to the best of his ability.
Second, there is a quick scene after the girls leave for school and he is preparing for their trip, where he is lovingly making three different sandwiches at the same time. Each one was unique and he moved with practiced skill in making the sandwiches. I know that making a sandwich is not probably a trait that is studied in acting school, but that very simple act in a cut scene testified to the depth of the man's personality.
The movie isn't bad as a normal story line. I like how his Mom and Dad call him out at any time. I like how he struggles with his inner self, what he wants to do and what he knows he needs to do. I like how there is little language and very little (if any) degrading humor/comments about women.
Billie wasn't quite as wowed by this movie as I was. But I think it's because this movie is about a man. Really, it's about a man, so why would she connect to it like me? Every time I saw him with his girls I thought about us. Every time I saw the loss in his eyes, I empathized with his pain. There were points in the movie where I could see me as him, if Billie and I had kids and she was taken away from me in death.
Hmmmm...it's just a movie that makes you go Hmmmmmmm. Frankly, it was very refreshing to have a movie that moved me.
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