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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
Salesrank: 956
Released: March 11, 2008 |
| Our Price: $12.86 |
| Used Price: $3.60 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
n/a
Description of Dan in Real Life:
Steve Carell’s best film performance to date can be found in the fitfully engaging Dan In Real Life, where his long-suffering persona suits a character who lets his long-dormant hopes rise for a moment, only to be shot down again. Carell plays Dan Burns, a newspaper columnist who writes about family issues and relationships. As a widower with three growing girls to raise, however, the difference between Dan’s printed wisdom and his struggles with fatherhood and loneliness is often vast. He’s put to a severe test when he packs up the kids for a cabin holiday with his parents and siblings, then falls for the exotic, if elusive, Marie (Juliette Binoche) during a solo excursion to a bookstore. Stirred by a woman for the first time since his late wife, Dan is shocked to find that Marie is actually dating his brother Mitch (Dane Cook), and that she’ll be spending the vacation with him in the midst of his family. From that point, the script, co-written by director Peter Hedges (Pieces of April), pretty much becomes a parade of difficult circumstances under which both Dan and Marie have to keep their attraction to one another secret. Certain scenes work better than others, but there is an overall monotony to the movie that isn’t helped by a lack of onscreen chemistry between Binoche and Carell. Both actors are fine on their own terms, but whatever is supposed to be clicking between Marie and Dan isn’t compelling enough to make one truly care that they get together somehow. Still, this is a film with plenty of moments to like, especially when Carell gets to broaden his previous range of emotions in a movie. --Tom Keogh
Dan in Real Life Reviews:
I laughed, I cried, I bought it. 
2009-11-30 - When this movie first came out the reviews were so-so and I didn't make the effort to get to the theater to see it. I just put it on my "rent it" list. I couldn't even tell you exactly why I love it so much, but when it later showed up on a movie channel I watched it over and over until I realized I should just buy it. This is a different side of Steve Carell. Still funny, but smart and vulnerable and struggling to do everything he can for his three daughters. Outstanding, if unexpected, casting. All the acting is first rate. Family relationships that feel genuine. I love this movie.
Plan to be surprised...
2009-11-16 - I blame it solely on that horribly cheesy poster art portraying Steve Carell's head laying on a stack of flapjacks, but I wrote off `Dan in Real Life' well before actually seeing it despite the good reviews and word of mouth from friends. It was supposed to be really good, but in my head all I saw was cheesy ridiculousness pretending to be sincere. I'm really glad that I finally gave in and watched this film this past weekend.
What a treasure.
I know this may seem like an odd comparison, and I will say off the bat that the film I'm about to compare it to does have some heavier themes, but this reminded me a lot of last years independent surprise `Rachel Getting Married'. In fact, I actually think that overall, `Dan in Real Life' is the better of the two films, or at least the most complete and comfortable of the two (when have I ever shunned away from discomfort in a cinematic offering?). I had a few issues with `Rachel's construction, but here I was completely soaking up every frame. It was funny, touching, charming, emotionally resonate and beautifully structured.
In quoting the film itself, and my review's title; "Plan to be surprised".
Steve plays Dan, an advice columnist who has lost his wife to an illness and is rearing his three young daughters with difficulty. His eldest daughter just wants to be given some freedoms, his middle daughter just wants to be allowed to express her newfound love and his youngest daughter just wants a little attention. Dan, depressed yet never to the dramatically overstated and clichéd effect that many actors would have played it, is just not capable of giving them what they need. When they make a trip to visit family, Dan meets the beautiful Marie and sparks fly, but she is involved and so they part only to uncover that they will be spending a lot of time together as Marie is dating Dan's younger brother Mitch. Trying to hide their growing affection for one another, Dan and Marie try and play cool, but it soon becomes more than either of them can handle.
The film is so much more than a glorified rom-com, as it seemed to have been marketed as. I really wish that this would have gotten the push it deserved, and that it had been campaigned as what it really is; a heartfelt and honest portrait of middle-aged growth and development. There is a sincerity about the way Dan comes to terms with his own person, trying to understand who he is as a man, as a father, as a widower. Carell is outstanding here (something I never imagined that I would say). Juliette Binoche is marvelous, as usual, giving her delicate performance a layer of spunk and wit that makes her delicious in every sense of the word. I even enjoyed Dane Cook's performance, and I find him repulsive. He was genuine and charming and natural.
I just love the piano-side sing-along (piggyface), for it was scenes like that that gave the film this lovely sense of naturalness.
Between the stellar cast and the wonderfully constructed scripting (nothing is ever too clichéd and even the romance is developed with smarts as apposed to the usual laziness) that contains some comical yet appropriate dialog ("MURDERER OF LOVE!"), `Dan in Real Life' is the real deal. I am just in such a state of pleasant and very welcomed shock right now.
Now, let's talk about fixing that ridiculous cover-art.
Dan in Real Life 
2009-11-05 - This was a very good movie; showing the difficulty one spouse has raising three
girls after his wife dies. It chronicals the problems that come up with dating, dealing with boyfriends, etc. We enjoyed it.
Real Life Comedy
2009-10-30 - A great movie that looks at love, and recovery through the eyes of a widower with three daughters. A wonderful drama/comedy that looks at family in a wonderful way.
DULL 
2009-10-26 - This is without a doubt the worst movie steve carell has ever done. Save your money.
