STUDIO: Buena Vista
RELEASE DATE: March 11th, 2008
STARRING: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney, and Emily Blunt
WRITTEN BY: Peter Hedges & Pierce Gardner
DIRECTED BY: Peter Hedges
FEATURES: Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Writer/Director Peter Hedges
Real-Life Outtakes
Just Like Family: The Making Of Dan In Real Life
Handmade Music: Creating The Score
Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Peter Hedges

Steve Carell has the face of a loveable loser. You can’t help but root for him, even when it’s clear that he’s going about everything all wrong and destined to do himself in. That makes him the perfect candidate for a film like Dan in Real Life. Carell plays Dan Burns, a widower and devoted father, struggling to raise three daughters. He’s also a popular advice columnist who’s on the verge of possible syndication, yet can’t seem to apply any of his sensible guidance to his own life. A chance meeting in a bookstore with a woman named Marie (Juliette Binoche) stirs up feelings of romance for the first time since the death of his wife four years ago. But what Dan doesn’t immediately realize is that Marie is already dating his well-meaning, but immature brother, Mitch (Dane Cook). Once a year, the extended Burns clan gets together for a family weekend at a lake house and it’s there that this unavoidable conflict comes to light and everything begins to falls apart for Dan.

Dan in Real Life is a romantic dramedy that attempts to, and somewhat succeeds at, approaching a well-worn cinema premise with a healthy dose of 'regular Joe' realism. Dan’s interactions with his family - the centerpiece of the film - are rendered with just the right amount of detail and can’t help but bring to mind our own. The movie strikes a balanced tone and manages to be sweet, without being sappy and amusing without ever devolving into slapstick. But while its reluctance to fall back on over-the-top "movie moments" is commendable, that reserved, middle ground is also the film’s greatest shortcoming. Everything that happens is fairly believable, but that doesn’t necessarily make it especially entertaining. Sure, I’d like to see the story end with each character pairing up with the right partner - but if things don’t pan out that way, I can’t say I’d be terribly upset either. The film floats by without ever creating more than a small amount of dramatic tension and as a result, the payoff just isn’t that rewarding.

Dan in Real Life, while mildly enjoyable once, didn’t strike me as the kind of movie into which I’d later feel the need to delve more deeply. Yet, I was surprised to find that some of its DVD extras actually did enhance my enjoyment of the film. Included, of course, are the prerequisite outtakes and "making of" featurette. And while neither of these shed any new light on the story nor characters, they do a nice job of illustrating just how much fun the cast and crew had making the film and the degree to which the extended family portrayed on-screen was a natural extension of everyone’s relationship off-screen. There’s also a short, but terrific, documentary entitled "Handmade Music: Creating the Score", which addresses writer/director Peter Hedges’ vision for the music (inspired by The Graduate and Harold and Maude) and how the charming, Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche managed to bring it to life. And while I was originally hoping for some audio commentary by Steve Carell (because he’s often funniest when off-script and free to roam), what we get from Hedges, instead, is actually delightful. His enthusiasm for the project and refusal to take himself too seriously are infectious and had me watching the film nearly all the way through a second time.