I Recommend: Dan in Real Life

Surprise! This is not a book review.

This is a movie review.

And I don't watch movies very often, so this may be the last movie review you see on my blog.

Dan in Real Life is great. I wasn't intending to watch it. I intended to spend my evening reading my writing pal's newest novel, but then the movie sort of sucked me in.

It's clean.

It's hilarious.

And I love the emotions the actors portray. You can just feel their pain. And you can laugh at it too, which is all the better.

Steve Carell, famous for his role in the American version of The Office, plays Dan, a widower, father of three daughters. He's a man who can give good advice, but has a hard time taking it.

What happens when a man like that falls in love, but loses the love-of-his-life to his younger brother?

And what happens when they all go on vacation together -- stuffed into a shingled vacation home on the coast? Mix in meddling parents, uber-observant teenage daughters with hormones and cell phones, and a whole bunch of other relatives who all have their own opinions, and you've got a situation ready to explode. In a good way.

When Dan's middle daughter yells at him, "You are a murderer of love!" because he sent her sneek-in boyfriend home, I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard. I got a clear fast-forward picture of the melodrama that will be our lives when our daughters start turning into teenagers.

But what a great movie!

If you haven't already, watch it.