We watched Dan in Real Life last night. That was a huge change of pace from the movie we watched on Tuesday (No Country for Old Men).
Dan in Real Life is about a single dad (Steve Carrell) of 3 young girls. They go on some family reunion type vacation where he meets a woman (Juliette Binoche) and some sparks fly but it turns out that she's dating his brother (Dane Cook). Lots of kookiness and zaniness follow.
I thought it was a cute, family movie although it had an uber cheesy ending. The thing that really got me was the interaction amongst the family.
So I guess the premise was that every year, the family would gather at their parents' house (Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney). Since the kids were all grown, it would be them, their spouses and all of their children. Lots and lots of people.
They all ate their meals together (grownups in one room, the kids in another) and played games. One of their games consisted of doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. They split into 2 groups: guys and girls. The winners didn't have to do dishes. Or they played charades. Or they did group exercise.
The activity that really killed it for me was the family talent show. Everyone performed something in front of the family. It was weird and it made The Mr and I look at each other and ask, "Are there really families out there like this?"
Maybe its because I never grew up around lots of family (aunts, uncles, cousins) and I only have a half brother. The Mr moved around a lot and only has a sister.
So, tell me... do these people actually exist? Or are these characters and situations just figments of the writers' imaginations manifested into ridiculous family movies?
I need to know if I should start blaming my parents for everything that's wrong in my life because they didn't host talent shows.
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7 comments:
Those families do exist, but not for me. One of my co-workers and her family did a murder mystery dinner one nite over Christmas. My family - not happening and I totally blame them for everything that is wrong in my life. Kidding! Sort of
For the sake of my sanity I'm going to pretend that families like that only exist in movies :)
hahaha I am surprised my family hasn't had a talent show yet - and I will try to keep it from ever happening! I come from a HUGE fam (my mom has 11 brothers and sisters) so game night can definietly get out of control and I have been victim to a few sing alongs! (I blame those for everything wrong in my life :P) hahaha
I saw that movie on the plane, and I am right there with you thinking this is kinda weird - certainly not my family!
Though... actually... when we were younger my family always used to spend a week with another family (friends of my parents) - and one summer, when MTV was huge, all of us kids made a "music video" ... um, yeah. We still have it on tape somewhere. Makes me cringe just to think of it...
weird. clancy and i watched that movie last night too.
1.)i thought the movie was super depressing
2.)it definitely had a cheesy ending
3.)those families don't exist. seriously? exercising together and playing games together EVERY NIGHT?
My family is kind of like that. I have four siblings and two half-siblings. All of us, including our parents and our kids (only one of us has kids right now though) went on a week-long vacation this past summer. And this year we're planning to drive across the country together! We do kooky things, play games, make meals together.
I don't think we'd warrant a movie, and we definitely don't do group exercise, but I think I have a pretty cool family.
i don't think that most families do that. the closest thing that we did to a talent show was the kids would lip-synch to duran duran and dance like fools in the living room in front of our family.
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