Dan (Carell) is a moralistic newspaper columnist, a widower, and a strict but beleaguered father of three daughters, two of them teen-agers.

NEWYORKER: Dan in Real Life

In the beginning, there was the lordly general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a Bible-quoting, sixty-four-year-old Republican with a strong moralistic streak and a sharp eye for business.

NEWYORKER: Artful Dodgers

Victorian that he was, Wagner could not help viewing Shakespeare's rowdy, devious Elizabethans in a moralistic but sentimental light, sometimes with disarming results.

WSJ: Richard Wagner's 'Orphans' | By Matthew Gurewitsch

Though the press-shy Anschutz would provide only vague answers to written questions through a secretary, his record shows a decidedly moralistic streak.

FORBES: Morality Play

Though the famously press-shy Anschutz would only provide vague answers to written questions through a secretary, his track record bears out a decidedly moralistic streak.

FORBES: Morality Play

But in "Drinkin' Problem, " Lori McKenna goes in a different direction, sidestepping the usual moralistic dimension in favor of getting under the skin of someone for whom the issue is an immediate concern.

NPR: In 'Drinkin' Problem,' an Enabler Finds Clarity