Dan In Real Life

Love is messy

Director: Peter Hedges Writers : Pierce Gardner and Peter Hedges
Steve Carell ,Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook Alison Pill ,Brittany Robertson, Marlene Lawston, Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney
Run Time: 1hr 36

Dan Burns: What don't I understand, Cara? Please, help me out. What is it? Is it frustrating that you can't be with this person? That there's something keeping you apart? That there's something about this person that you can connect with? And whenever you're near this person, you don't know what to say, and you say everything that's in your mind and in your heart, and you know that if you could just be together, that this person would help you become the best possible version of yourself?

The movie opens with newspaper journalist Dan Burns (Steve Carell) waking up on a bed covered in magazines and newspapers. A widowed single father with three girls, Dan writes a living by giving advice to parents, whilst fussing and overprotecting his three girls.

Jane Burns: [about driving] If you don't let me, I'll never learn.
Dan Burns: But if I let you, you might not live.

Things go awry during a family reunion trip when Dan encounters Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore. In the scene, Dan pretends to work in the bookstore in order to get closer to Marie, and the encounter turns out to be a decisive one, and upon which the rest of the flick turns.

Curiously, I went to watch this film expecting it to be set mostly in a newsroom, and suspecting an office-based love triangle. The story instead is set deeply and intimately inside a charming family-on-vacation, with Binoche turning up as the catalyst for plenty of awkwardness for Dan, who finds the bookstore ‘hottie’ is in fact his brother’s latest fling.

While the movie has similarities in terms of plot to The Family Stone, Carell and Binoche make it their own, combining lighthearted touches with poignant sequences.
Cara Burns: You are a murderer of love!
Brittany Robertson (Cara Burns) wearing slacks with the words ‘You Wish’ in an opening scene, puts in a moving and memorable performance as Dan’s lovesick daughter, but the entire cast holds their own.

The flick, penned by Peter Hedges (novelist of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and the screenwriter for About A Boy) and Pierce Gardner, is an interesting study of the dynamic that exists between family and family friends. When do you put family first, and when you’re in love, when does oneself put one’s self first? And what do you do when someone close to you loves the same person you love?

Dan in Real Life may be great medicine for audiences of all ages who are berating either themselves or someone else for their lovelorn circumstances. Both my companion and myself not only enjoyed this flick, but felt it addressed quite intimately very different concerns in both of our private lives.

Whether you’re a rebellious 15 year old, a single mom, a couple or trying to make sense of a break-up, there’s a lot in this flick to make it seem like it’s all part of life, and fun and not so bad, at the same time.

Rating: 7/10