by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B+ Rated PG-13 95 min
Writer/director Peter Hedges’ theme for Dan in Real Life involves protagonist Dan Burns (Steve Carell) finding cosmic love at a very inopportune time. Yes, this happens often in real life. For instance, Jerry Seinfeld met his wife just after she had married someone else, greatly complicating both of their lives. Soul-mate level love happens like an emotional atomic bomb. The two people involved know in their hearts that they’re soulfully connected, but it happens on whatever track their respective lives are running at the time.
In Hedges’ screenplay, Dan is a widower whose wife died four years ago. He is raising three teenage daughters with the requisite annoying melodrama. As a popular newspaper advice columnist, writing a column titled Dan in Real Life, Dan is not heeding his own advice. For a Christmas getaway Dan and the girls travel to visit his large extended family. His brothers and sisters are all concerned about him. His brother Mitch (Dane Cook) has a hot new girlfriend. When Dan goes to visit a “bait and book store,” he meets an interesting and beautiful woman Marie (Juliette Binoche) and the fireworks go off as both of them realize it’s an extraordinary connection. After a long talk with much laughter, Marie has to go, but she gives Dan her phone number. Later, back at Dan’s parents’ house, Mitch finally comes home with his new girlfriend. Ah yes, it’s Marie.
From this point on, the comedy is built on precisely orchestrated timing, pregnant pauses, and Dane Cook and Steve Carell’s skillful comedic acting–both together and solo. Clearly, director Hedges reined in Cook’s tendency to grand-stand. Carell uses a variety of facial expressions to pull-off many guffaw-producing moments. Forced to be in the same house with the new love of his life, who is sleeping with his brother, Dan makes the most of the occasion, which leads to many opportunities for comedic situations that Carell delivers with his trademark deadpan droll style.
The bustling household with all the siblings, their wives and kids makes a busy backdrop for Dan’s critical dilemma. His options are many but achieving a painless outcome is nil. Before this situation is over, someone is going to get hurt. Yet, Hedges keeps the laughs coming and capitalizing on the many farcical moments when Dan and Marie are alone. Here again, the comedy depends on perfect timing, which Hedges and his cast act-out with consummate skill. Viewers learn to appreciate Carell’s comedic talent in the context of this script, comparing it to his role in The Office. They are similar characters.
For Dan, doing the right thing is important. But his judgement is so clouded by his love of Marie, he can barely keep his thoughts together. Even his daughters notice him flirting with Marie. It’s a caldron of boiling emotions as Dan tries to resolve the problem, but, like being caught in quicksand, the more he struggles the deeper he sinks into the muck.
Juliette Binoche is a versatile actress who has a natural talent for comedy. She sparkles with laughter, stunning beauty, and acting talent, playing Marie with amazing verve. Mitch dotes on her, bragging that she is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to him, blah, blah, blah. This only tortures Dan, who is about to burst with desire to be near Marie.
The picture is consistently funny from beginning to end with a stellar cast. Its comedy is tempered by the portrayal of a large loving family which warms the viewer’s heart. For Steve Carell, it’s a great follow-up to Little Miss Sunshine.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
