Dan in Real Life

RATING 7.5/10

BOTTOM LINE: Steve Carell puts in a wonderful, and very human performance in a non-comedic romantic role as a windowed father of three daughters who falls in love with a woman who later turns out to be his brother’s girlfriend.

THE GOOD: One of the great things about this movie is watching Steve Carell play a more-or-less the straight character in a light hearted drama. Showing off his ability to act, Carell plays Dan Burns, a controlling widowed father of three who also has a day job as a newspaper advice columnist. Dan and his daughters visit their family in Rhode Island for their annual get together, where Dan meets and has an extraordinary connection with Marie (Binoche) while on a trip by himself in to town. Later, Dan discovers to his horror that Marie is his brother’s girlfriend, which leads to a series of awkward situations where the couple find it difficult to hide their obvious connection from Dan’s family. The film works very well as a light-hearted drama, with all the characters given significant moments throughout the film to shine. Carell and Binoche share an obvious chemistry, while the supporting cast are likewise excellent, with Dane Cook surprising everyone by not being obnoxious, and Emily Blunt playing the ugly duckling turned beautiful swan girl from the family’s past (who is also a little crazy). Director Peter Hedges manages to create some solid moments between all the characters, making them three-dimensional characters where they could have easily been clichéd, particularly Dan’s daughters. Carell is the star of the show of course, and in summary, “Dan In Real Life” is a nice way to spend a few hours.

THE BAD: As with most Hollywood movies, the conflict and resolution that such a situation creates in this film implausibly leads to a conventional happy ending. In real life, you could not imagine Dane Cook’s character of Mitch easily forgiving his brother Dan for in effect cheating with his girlfriend, but the film manages to wrap up this conflict in a matter of minutes and quite conveniently gives Mitch another girlfriend for him to live happily ever after as well. Also, there is one unfortunate scene mid-way through the film where Steve Carell goes in to slapstick comedian mode with some hyper-styled dancing which seem out of place and designed to tap some of Carell’s comedic talents, even though this is quite misplaced.

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

One of the better comedies of what’s come out lately. Enjoyable.

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-03-13 06:42:02 by McDozer