Dan in Real Life: All in the Family
Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche. Dane Cook

By Breanne Boland November 1, 2007 Issue

It’s nothing out of the ordinary for comic actors to want to show their dramatic sides. Even actors who become famous for literally talking out of their... err... rears eventually want to display their range. Robin Williams and Jim Carrey are two of the more notable comics who have walked both sides of the comedy/tragedy line, with varying success. With Dan in Real Life, Steve Carell joins their ranks.

Dan in Real Life is often funny, but it’s more of a comic drama. Thanks to great characterization and a sharp script, Carell’s skill with timing and physical comedy are channeled rather than stifled, used to bring a melancholy single father of three to vivid life.

Dan Burns is a widower, a man who writes an advice column despite being mystified at how to deal with his own family. On the eve of a two-week family gathering, he winds up at odds with both of his teenage daughters. The unhappiest station wagon in the northeast shuttles them to a cabin, where his entire family awaits.

The morning after their arrival, Dan flees his angry daughters for the respite of a nearby bookstore. While there, he encounters a beautiful, mysterious woman, played by Juliette Binoche, and has an extraordinary conversation, a meeting of the souls. However, when he tries to get her number and follow up on the first romantic connection he’s had since his wife’s death, she waffles and flees.

He’s crestfallen, convinced he’ll never see her again, but fate intervenes. Alas, fate brings her to him as his younger brother’s new girlfriend — the happy couple arrives that afternoon.

Facing two weeks of watching the woman of his dreams necking with his brother, Dan melts down in a symphony of funny, awkward, painful moments. Rather than acting like he’s trying out a different medium altogether, Carell seamlessly melds misery and comedy. It helps that a generally great cast surrounds him, but Carell carries the film.

Comic dramas are uniquely satisfying — the comedy balances out the seriousness, but the more meaningful storyline gives a nice gravity and makes it less disposable. Dan in Real Life is a great example of this — a gentle, good-hearted film with a great mix of light and dark.

Bottom line: a sweet, even film.

Lars and the Real Girl

Speaking of good-hearted, this film is a cavalcade of pleasant surprises. The premise of a young man buying a high-tech sex doll and parading it around as his girlfriend seems the stuff of lazy lowbrow comedies. However, all is respectful here. The film itself treats Lars and his inanimate lady gently; Lars’s small northern town also embraces its oddest citizen, gently supporting his delusion until it reaches his natural end.

Ryan Gosling is perfectly straight-faced as the delusional Lars; there probably aren’t very many actors who could manage a believable argument with a silicone doll. Better still, the depiction of a village rallying around him is surprisingly sweet. Lars and the Real Girl is a small, kind movie, one that makes you feel good about what humans are capable of. However, its clever concept keeps it well out of the realm of treacle.

Coming Attractions

Nov. 2
Bee Movie - I’ve seen so many ads for this movie over such a long period of time that sheer spite keeps me from wanting to see it. But, in case you do: Jerry Seinfeld whines his way through an animated movie about a dissatisfied bee that files a lawsuit against humanity.

American Gangster - Denzel Washington plays one of the first black gangsters, the head of a drug-running syndicate in Harlem. Russell Crowe is the detective that seeks to take him down. Directed by Ridley Scott.

Martian Child - A 40-something writer, reeling from his wife’s death, adopts a young boy who believes he’s a Martian. Naturally, he thinks the boy is just troubled, but the closer he looks, the more likely it seems that his claims may be true.

Nov. 9
Fred Claus - The ne’er-do-well brother of Santa Claus moves to the North Pole after life in the real world doesn’t work out so well. Alas, Christmas cheer doesn’t much improve things. Expect lots and lots - and lots - of elf/dwarf/midget jokes.

Lions for Lambs - Robert Redford directs and stars in this story about an investigation following two soldiers’ injuries in Afghanistan. With Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, who seems to be channeling his crazy into an appropriate project.

More from Breanne Boland

More movie reviews

(Top)