Dan in Reel Life

Sorry if I'm slow on the uptake here, but it seems to me that if you're in a movie, you'll be great at your profession, but terrible at it's application into your own life. Take the trailer for "Dan in Real Life..." Please! As an example of what I'm talking about!

Dan is an advice columnist who can fix everyone else's problems, except his own. Just like Carrie Bradshaw, professional relationship columnist, can handle every relationship, except her own. And Turok, Dinosaur Hunter can kill every dinosaur, except the one's inside his own heart!

I guess, is it too much to ask to have a few movies where people are really great at their jobs, but have an entirely different problem? Like, there's an ace divorce lawyer, who actually has a great marriage and two kids, but just can't handle the cooking competition he finds himself in. Or a doctor who's whole family is healthy, because he heals them awesomely, even himself and/or his elderly dad, but his yardwork totally sucks.

Those are just two amazing screenplay ideas I just came up with.

See what I mean? See how easy it is? Sometimes, people who are good at their professions are just good at them, and there are other problems they can have that aren't specific to their profession. There's no reason to fall back on this hackneyed and overplayed formula.

Now if I could only figure out how to analyze my own movies...