I just finished watching Dan In Real Life again.

I connect in so many ways with Dan and with the movie and any time I am feeling maudlin it is a good movie to immerse myself in. I have it on my iPhone so I can watch it when I feel so inspired.

Dan lost his wife while he still had three daughters living at home. Four years later he meets and falls for Marie, who unfortunately is in a relationship with his single brother Mitch. Of course all this happens at the most inopportune time, a family reunion where Marie and her relationship to Mitch take center stage, pushing Dan and Marie's love-at-first-sight underground.

Dan is the only member of the family who is exempt from participating in the family talent show. Regardless, he and Mitch sing a duet that eventually becomes a surreptitious love song by Dan to Marie. She knows he was singing to her and afterwards asks him: "What was that?"

"I couldn't stop myself"

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"Can't do anything. He's my brother"

"Why did you sing for me, then?"

Sally and I used to sing to each other, when we were courting. We don't do that very much any more, though I do write poetry to her.

I am moved by the closeness of his family and also by the way they accept Marie from the very beginning. I am also moved by the mutual love Dan and Marie feel, from the beginning it is never one in love pursuing the other; they fall for each other right away. I am moved by the loyalty that Dan has for his brother. And I am happy that, unlike many movies, the story continued right through to their marriage, instead of leaving that to your imagination.