Real Life (1979 Film) - Plot

Plot

Ordinary family man Warren Yeager and his wife Jeannette are delighted to have a documentary filmmaker, Albert Brooks, choose them for a new cinematic and "scientific" experiment -- he intends to capture every waking moment of their daily life on film. It is a project Brooks confidently announces to a large gathering, even greeting them with a song.

The concept is for the Yeagers and their two children to go about their business at their Phoenix home, work and school as if nothing is different from a typical day, ignoring the fact that men wearing cameras that look like Star Wars helmets are recording every move they make and every word they say.

Brooks promises to be as unobtrusive as possible, taking up a separate residence in the neighborhood and promising not to interfere. Little by little, though, the stress of everyday life is complicated by the presence of the film crew. Brooks also becomes the unwitting object of Mrs. Yeager's attentions.

Yeager, a veterinarian, becomes grief-stricken when he is filmed accidentally causing a horse's death. A grandparent's death similarly upsets Jeannette. Soon the couple stops talking, becoming, as Brooks puts it, "lifeless" in their every day life. The unscrupulous man from Hollywood is likely to go to any lengths to make his film more interesting, even if it means dressing up as a clown to cheer them up or letting the Yeager house catch fire.