Friday, November 23, 2007

Dan In Real Life

A good comic actor makes you laugh. A great one makes you cry. Charlie Chaplin was the all time master, but I can’t think of anyone of this generation who can play the sad clown as convincingly as Steve Carell.

Not only did I fall in love with Dan the lovesick widower, I’ve decided that I want to spend the holidays with his family. The whole clan is charming and raucous and thoroughly into each other’s business in an utterly benign and loving way. And yet somehow they still manage to seem like a real family.

No mine, of course.

The whole movie is infused with the music of Sondre Lerche, a somewhat obscure Swedish songwriter and performer who sounds suspiciously like Rufus Wainwright. The music sets exactly the right tone - sweet, quirky, and completely out of the ordinary.

I laughed. I cried. Four and a half out of five.

(and Murray liked it too!)

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