As it turns out, I am not a superstitious person. So I barely thought about the oh-no-iness of the whole thing. I am, however, a dates person. I like dates. Of the year. I'm really good at remembering birthdays (of people I like, don't get cray...). I have a favorite day of the year (don't worry, I'll tell you when it gets here). And when the numbers look cool (01/01/01, or 02-04-06, most recently 06.09.12), I celebrate with an overly cheerful Facebook status acknowledgment and special attention to my penmanship when I write in my journal before bed.
So, that said, Happy Friday the 13th, world!!! (<--- observe overly cheerfulness)
In honor of this momentous occasion, I am ushering in a new tradition that I like to call Friday Faves. I think this is self-explanitory. But for those common-sensically challenged, I will write about a new favorite thing of mine every Friday. This Friday, the thing is:
Dan in Real Life.
Dan in Real Life is a movie. It's a tall frosty glass of frozen strawberry lemonade in 100 degree 100% humidity South Texas weather. It's a beanie baby in the shape of Mother Theresa with the softness of a newborn Beagle's ears. It's heaven wrapped in babies wrapped in bacon. Which is to say, it's awesome.
The movie, starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, and Dane Cook (among others), was released in 2007 and I'm pretty sure I watched it on a plane to England that Christmas. But I was in and out of sleeping and I didn't have my glasses on. I apparently remembered I loved it enough to give it five stars on Netflix - which turned out to be a disappointment because I went to Netflix all excited to bump up my rating on it only to discover it could not be upped any further. Sad day. IMDB succinctly summarizes this movie: "A widower finds out the woman he fell in love with is his brother's girlfriend." And while the description is apt, it is not enough.
Dan in Real Life is about a man who, by day, is a "parenting expert" but, by night, is a lonely man with three daughters he has no clue how to deal with and an achy breaky heart. Dan is such a human character, you can't help but love him. He is trying so hard to be the right guy. The right kind of father. The right kind of brother. The right kind of son. The right kind of driver! But has his youngest daughter Lily says early in the film: "You're a good father, but sometimes bad dad." Throughout the course of the film, his parenting skills only worsen as he falls for The Wrong Girl, his brother's girlfriend, Marie. Marie is obviously the perfect match for him. She's beautiful, wise, funny, charming, well-cultured, well-read, adventurous. Dan's daughters all find something inspiring in her. And he begins to really heal after his wife's death.
My watching this movie must have been torture for my upstairs neighbors, because I laughed so. very. loud. so. very. often. But as they say, great comedy is founded in great pain. And there is so much pain! And so much comedy. This is by far my favorite Carell film. And after enjoying every second of the feature and every bonus feature, I've determined I must own this movie and its soundtrack (which is the most intense and intentional scoring process I've ever seen for any movie!) as soon as humanly possible.
So this Friday, I offer you the gift of Dan and his very Real Life. Go watch it. It will make you feel irreparably human in the best possible way.
Happy Faveday!
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