Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell, is one of those movies that you want to like. Carell plays a widower with three daughters who writes a parental advice column for the local newspaper. At home, however, his relationship with his kids is constantly strained. While at a family reunion, Dan hits it off with a nice woman in a bookstore, only to later find that she is his brother's girlfriend, and she is coming to staying with the family for the week.With that set-up, you can expect plenty of awkward hilarity. Certainly, there was ample fodder for some good jokes and situational irony. But what follows is mostly just awkward. As is so often the case with Steve Carell, most of the movie's "humorous" moments made me cringe more than laugh. Carell's character has some really poignent moments, but they never last long. The writers and director don't let anything remain understated. As the sequence of events becomes more and more outrageous, I lost any emotional attachment to the characters. There were still a few good lines, but they were far and few between. Dan in Real Life doesn't actual represent many real life situations, which is a shame, because it has its funniest moments when the characters are allowed to act like normal people.
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2 comments:
I have to disagree with you. The awkward situations aren't all that far from real life. Although the total combination is a bit outrageous, each one is fairly realistic. Maybe you are just more cautous than the rest of us.
It wasn't so much the awkward situations that annoyed me, but the annoying conception of love as this feeling that just sweeps you away and you have no control and the One is just the One. The second daughter, especially, I thought was just annoying and self-centered.
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