Movie Review: Dan in Real Life
Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook Star in Romantic Comedy
"Dan in Real Life" is about a widowed father raising three girls who falls for his brother's girlfriend.
The movie Dan in Real Life has a lot of things going for it, including an excellent cast of actors and a decent (albeit familiar) premise: man falls for brother’s girlfriend amidst a family gathering. Also key is the “group of people sharing a house for a weekend” theme, which has worked for numerous films from The Big Chill to To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.
But Dan in Real Life misses the mark. It blends comedy and drama, but the jokes are contrived and feel very “sitcom.” Similarly, the drama is strained and forced. Most troubling is that many elements of drama are brushed over and never fully explored.
Writer-director Peter Hedges (who co-wrote the script with Pierce Gardner) wrote and directed the superior Pieces of April, an indie success in 2003. That film’s gradual character development and subtle blend of humor and heartbreak are lacking in Dan in Real Life.
Dan (Steve Carell) is a widowed advice columnist raising three girls. They travel to Dan’s parents’ house for a long weekend. There Dan meets Marie and immediately falls for her, only to learn that she’s his brother’s girlfriend.
He and Marie decide to keep their first (completely platonic) meeting a secret, which already seems forced – it would still be dramatic if Dan admitted he’d already run into Marie.
Carell showed his dramatic acting skills in Little Miss Sunshine, but his performance in Dan in Real Life lacks the same depth. The story takes a lot of the blame – certain questions arise while watching the film: why does Dan’s family act as though he’s the “loser” when he’s shown as a good father and a hard worker?
Juliette Binoche’s Marie is little more than the “object of affection” – there are no details given about her character and the script seems so intent on making her independent and invulnerable that she comes across as two-dimensional. With the addition of (the underused) Emily Blunt, another side of Marie is shown, but that portion of the film is rushed through.
Dane Cook shows promise but isn’t given much to do. Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney, as Dan’s parents, have each played the “parent” role seamlessly in such comedies as Parenthood and TV’s Frasier, respectively. But their characters are underdeveloped and, more importantly, they don’t seem believable as married or having a history together.
There is time that could have been used for more character development and stronger moments, instead of an abundance of scenes where the characters dance, play charades and even put on a family talent show.
When the characters onscreen are having much more fun than the audience, there is definitely something wrong!
