Dan in Real Life

Dan in Real Life
by Peter Hedges

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DVD details

Actor: Bernie McInerney, Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney, Juliette Binoche, Steve Carell
Director: Peter Hedges
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Composer: Sondre Lerche
Cinematographer: Lawrence Sher
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone

DVD Reviews of Dan in Real Life

DVD Review: You'll love Steve Carell in this.
Summary: 3 Stars

I had the chance to watch Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche, this week, and may I just say that I'm beginning to think Steve Carell can play whatever role he chooses? The man has displayed some range, people, range that you often don't see in a "comedic" actor. This tendency reminds me a bit of Jim Carrey, but I think that Carell's style is subtler and funnier.

In this movie, Carell plays Dan, a widowed newspaper-advice columnist with three daughters. Dan has carried a torch for his late wife since her death (which was four years prior to the events of the movie). As the film opens, Dan is bundling his little family up for an annual visit to his parents' house. Once there, he makes a short errand into town, where he meets Marie (Binoche) in a book shop. The two feel an instant connection, and they sit and talk for hours. Later that evening, Dan is more formally introduced to Marie. She's his brother's new girlfriend. (Ouch.)

During the days that follow, we watch Dan as he breaks down personal and professional barriers, learns more about what it means to put family first, and actually begins listening to some of his own advice.

Carell and Binoche, I thought, were both wonderful in this, and the script taps into something that many screenwriters fail to give enough credit to - women love men who make them laugh. Comedians can play romantic leads, if they are allowed to use the aspect of their personalities that makes them (in some cases) most attractive - their senses of humor. People make jokes all the time, and at least SOME of them are really funny. We don't see enough of such light banter in film, probably because it plays best when ad-libbed, and in scripts it seems so often over-rehearsed.

Carell perfectly captures the sort of giddy, joking high that one gets when one finds a kindred spirit. Dan and Marie make each other laugh, and they think the same things are funny. (Incidentally, I though Carell and Binoche had great chemistry in their scenes together.) This is a warm, funny story, and it's perfectly suited for family viewing. (It's got a PG-13 rating.)

DVD Review: A Pleasant Date Movie
Summary: 4 Stars

Wow, Steve Carrell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook all in the same movie. I've never heard of Dane Cook until I read all these comparisons of him to the late great American icon comic George Carlin. And now he has a featured role alongside one of the most accomplished French actresses in cinema, Binoche. Dan in Real Life, is obviously going to attract fans of "The Office's" Steve Carrell, who is very good in this movie, but if you're not a fan of any of the principal actors, then this is just another harmless date movie. As Hollywood stories go, Dan in Real Life, comes up with a plot device centuries old and a conclusion just as antique. There are some unexplicable happenings, but movies are a fantasy world, where imagining the impossible has to come true. Dan in Real Life is fictional but it's also fun. In it's own unique way, "Dan in Real Life" is a pleasant reminder that it's never too late to find your other half.

DVD Review: Watching a man mope isn't entertainment
Summary: 2 Stars

Watch a depressed, dejected, sullen faced man mope around for two hours. Sounds like a barrel of laughs! Dan in Real Life is two hours of watching a middle aged man mope. That, and be a controlling father obsessed with squashing his teenage daughter's sexuality. But see, its cute that he wants to slap a chastity belt on his daughter, because he's upset over not having love in his own life. Enter, Juliet Binoche - alluring no matter how brain dead this role is. Dan falls for her in a bookstore, even though she doesn't tell him a word about herself. But it is true love, see, because she giggles at all of Dan's banter as he talks about himself non stop for an hour. Here comes the Three's Company moment - Juliet is dating Dan's brother! Now Dan can mope around sulking and acting like a baby because Juliet is with his brother and not him. Isn't that cute and charming? Look, Dan has a temper tantrum at the dining room table, ha ha! Oops, Dan has to hide in the shower and the water gets turned on! Tee-hee, Dan watches Juliet's butt while she does aerobics with Dan's brother. Dan in Real Life is situation comedy to the max. But wait - you don't want to miss the sentimental moment when Dan sings Let My Love Open the Door to Your Heart! He hasn't played guitar or sang since his wife died, cue the tears. Bleck. Gag. Will Dan get the girl, or choke on a bottle of Zoloft? Only masochistic movie goers will find out.

DVD Review: Super Dad has a meltdown
Summary: 5 Stars

Dan in Real Life by Richard D. Costa

How does a single father of three young daughters save his children from the corruption of modern culture? He writes a column on how to do it right, politely rebukes male suitors at the doorstep and embraces the power of the word every father worth their salt has at his disposal: `no.'
So begins the story of columnist and book author Dan Burns (Steve Carell) in Dan in Real Life. Dan walks the straight and narrow. He lives with his two teen-aged and one nine-year old daughter in New Jersey. They take a road trip to visit his parents in Rhode Island for a weekend reunion with their large extended family in what should be an uneventful family event in the otherwise uneventful life of a widowed father. But life has other designs.
Once in Rhode Island, Dan takes a ride around town after his mother nudges him to take a break from battling his hormonal teen-aged daughters. In a seaside bookstore he meets the lovely Maria (played by Juliet Binoche). Infatuated, he helps her find books and soon unloads his entire life story to her, including the loss of his wife four years earlier. He insists on seeing her again, and they part company.
When Dan returns to his parents' house where his family has gathered for the reunion, Dan's brother Mitch (Dane Cook) introduces him to his new girlfriend, the very same Maria he met in the bookstore.
The awkwardness that follows as the two try to mask their affection for each other for the sake of temperamental Mitch fuels the comedy in Dan in Real Life.
What works about this film is Carell's responsible, understated persona struggling with uncontrollable passion. He makes a complete fool of himself repeatedly, and it's a pleasure to watch. Binoche lights up the screen with her shapely figure and personality, while Dane Cook plays the perfect unintentional foil to the forces of love and destiny.
The settings in Providence, Newport and Jamestown showcase the areas hitherto often unappreciated beauty, and the simple, pleasant traditions observed by the Burns family gives the film a simple touch of heart and hominess. In-laws, children and relatives parade freely through the beautiful waterfront home during the film. They eat meals together, play football, play games, go kayaking and do aerobics. They even have a family talent show in the living room. The lead characters give the film their best, while the supporting roles (with the likes of Dianne Wiest as momma Burns and Frasier's John Mahoney playing Dan's father) round the cast out nicely.
In the end, Dan gets a lesson about his escalating bad behavior from none other than his own put upon daughters who he plays super dad to.
The plot isn't terribly complex, but a quaint family atmosphere, a forbidden romance and the meltdown of a responsible, restrained father makes for moments that are both touching and funny. The extended Burns family members are sweet, kind and intrusive. Dan's protective confrontations with his fourteen year old daughter Cara and her would be suitor are particularly entertaining.
Norwegian performer Sondre Lerche provides much of the soundtrack, which includes a remake of a famous Pete Townsend song. Lerche and singer Lillian Samdal appear at the end of the film in a melodic, jazzy duet performance of Lerche's Modern Nature. Look sharp for local Rhode Island locations (including beautiful waterfront panoramas) in this one.

DVD Review: No chemistry . .
Summary: 2 Stars

I think this movie would have been SO much better had they recast Juliette Binoche with somebody else (anybody else actually!) like Monica Potter for instance. I never bought Ms. Binoche on any level in this film and the entire family's total gushing over her was so unbelievable. Steve Carell's so-called chemistry with her was painful to watch. But the setting was beautiful!

Description of Dan in Real Life

Steve Carell (THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN TV's THE OFFICE) Hollywood's leading funnyman stars in the hilarious comedy that's bursting with charm -- a movie you'll watch again and again. Advice columnist Dan Burns (Carell) is an expert on relationships but somehow struggles to succeed as a brother a son and a single parent to three precocious daughters. Things get even more complicated when Dan finds out that the woman he falls in love with is actually his brother's new girlfriend. Carell is joined by a brilliant all-star supporting cast including Juliette Binoche Dane Cook John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest for a heartfelt fun-filled comedy that's "laugh-out-loud funny" -- Steve Oldfield FOX.System Requirements:Running Time: 98 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?COMEDY/FAMILY GATHERINGS Rating:?PG-13 UPC:?786936732658 Manufacturer No:?05416600

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

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