Like the recent
Feast of Love, Dan in Real Life proves that a
great cast isn’t always able to elevate a poorly constructed
picture beyond the level of mediocrity. I’m not sure what has
happened to co-writer/director Peter Hedges’ since he made
2003’s wonderfully charming Pieces of April, but it
surely hasn’t affected him for the better. Dan in Real Life
is an example of a filmmaker operating on autopilot, tiresomely
moving from scene to scene without any real sense of purpose
beyond selling a manufactured product. In the case of this
motion picture, Hedges apparently didn’t feel the need to come
up with anything especially creative in terms of story or
character; he merely assumed that the many talents of Steve
Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook (surprisingly good here),
Diane Wiest, and John Mahoney would make the movie into a
winner.
In one sense, the aforementioned functions as a testament to the
acting abilities of the cast of Dan in Real Life. The
performances on display in the movie are uniformly engaging and
effortless, nearly working in exactly the way Hedges wanted. The
identifiably humorous sense of everyman-ism that Carell injects
into the title-character almost single-handedly makes the
dreadfully bland writing and direction forgivable. But Carell,
alongside his ensemble of gifted counterparts, could’ve made any
film as inoffensively plain as Dan in Real Life
tolerable. Just because the picture proves occasionally
entertaining due to the presence of good acting doesn’t mean
that it offers viewers anything valuable to take home with them
as they leave the theatre. There simply isn’t much to be gained
from Dan in Real Life’s simple takes on love and family
and, as a result, the efforts of the cast seem to have been
exploited because of the fact that they belong to a product of
such stunning insignificance.
It would seem a fruitless endeavor to waste my time describing
Dan in Real Life’s uninspired plot, but in order to
discourage those still inclined to see it after getting to this
point in my review, it seems necessary to indulge in its painful
ordinariness as a precaution. Carell’s Dan Burns is a widower
fathering three daughters by himself. Dan writes a newspaper
advice column for a living, but still can’t seem to connect with
his own children. That the four are headed off to an annual
family reunion in small-town Rhode Island makes this problem all
the more distressing for Dan; he will have to not only face his
girls’ scrutiny during the course of the trip, but also that of
his relatives. As expected, something profound happens to him in
Rhode Island: when one morning running out to buy a newspaper in
town, Dan meets Marie (Juliette Binoche), the first woman he has
felt a genuine connection with since the death of his wife.
Unfortunately for Dan, a major obstacle arises when he discovers
that Marie is actually dating his playboy of a younger brother,
Mitch (Dane Cook). In fighting to find a way to capture Marie’s
forbidden heart, Dan comes to realize how to do the same with
those of his daughters.
The movie so obviously moves from Point A to Point B to Point C
that it can barely sustain itself for its petite 95-minute
running length. That products this unoriginal are still being
made in Hollywood always strikes me as somewhat depressing.
Still, though, Dan in Real Life manages to at least find
redemption in its delightful performances and, as sterile as it
may seem in retrospect, it remains bearable as it unfolds
because of them. But who wants to see a movie that is just
“bearable”? Not me.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 10.26.2007
Screened on:
10.20.2007 at the Krikorian Vista Metroplex 15 in Vista, CA.
Dan in Real Life is rated PG-13 and
runs 98 minutes.
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