Cook, Binoche and Carell tug at the heart in warm, funny “Dan in Real Life”
MOVIE REVIEW
After watching “Dan in Real Life,” one might wonder if Steve Carell had any trepidation in taking a role that strays from his brilliant but somewhat typecast filmography. Rather than relying on zany farce as he does as a weirdo on TV’s “The Office” or as an off-balanced nerd on “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” Carell plays it fairly straight in a movie that hits high on the scales of comedy and romance, with just a dollop of dramatic reality. It’s almost as if he were playing, well, real life.
His character, Dan Burns, is a good match for Carell’s personality, especially since his act is so naturalistic and smartly sardonic. Dan is a newspaper advice columnist who’s trying to keep his own family together four years after becoming a touchingly clichéd widower. The job allows him to be a stay-at-home dad to three daughters: two contrary teens (Alison Pill and Brittany Robertson) and a surprisingly grounded 10-year-old (Marlene Lawston). They battle in all the typical ways without any lopsided moralizing. It may be that the girls are more sensible - Dad really can be a clueless authoritarian who needs to read his own column.
If Carell felt like he was flying without a net with the shift in screen persona, he needn’t have worried. Carell is funny and wry squeezing hearty as well as heartfelt laughs from real situation comedy. The film does sometimes flirt with small-screen sitcom sensibilities, but it rises above, thanks to great dialogue and a chemistry that Carell sparks with all of his on-screen family and friends.
Dan packs the girls into the Volvo for a family reunion at his parents’ rambling beachside compound in Rhode Island. It’s an ingenious setting that’s novel, picturesque and provides lots of nooks and crannies for whispered conversations between various characters.
The first morning there, Dan becomes smitten by a beautiful woman he encounters in a bookstore. After meeting Marie (Juliette Binoche), his natural defenses shed before our eyes. The chemistry between the two becomes palpable.
Still bubbling, Dan goes back to the house, where his large family can’t help but notice the change. They get most of the story out of him. But then brother Mitch (Dane Cook) has to spoil it all by stepping in and introducing his new girlfriend, Marie.
On paper, this would be a tough moment to buy, but Carell and Binoche pull it off. You feel Dan’s shattered longing and Marie’s confused emotions. Even the goofball presence of Cook makes an impact as he remains amiably inept throughout.
In this atmosphere of familial closeness, love and discomfort, Dan and Marie must dance around each other along with everyone else, giving a slightly screwball tone to some of the sequences.
Even with the large cast, the focus seldom strays from Binoche and especially Carell. This movie is all his to dig into with lovable good humor and real warmth. Even an overly cuddly scene between Dan and his daughters, where he confesses to not taking his own advice, can’t drag down an ending that’s entirely predictable but lovely all the same.
Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com