Dan in Real Life
Directed by Peter Hedges, Screenplay by Pierce Gardner and Peter Hedges, (2007)
It all begins with widowed father and family advice columinist Dan Burns (Steve Carell), who is still reeling from the heartache of loss and takes refuge by trying to maintain order with his three rebellious young daughters, while dodging anything unexpected or outside the box. But when Dan and heads with his daughters to Rhode Island for the annual Fall weekend thrown by the large and boisterous Burns family, everything changes. Soon after his arrival, he runs into an alluring woman named Marie (Juliette Binoche) in a bookshop. For the first time in a very long time, Dan experiences real live sparks — only to have to douse them liberally when he discover Marie, is in fact, the brand-new girlfriend his brother Mitch (Dane Cook) is about to proudly introduce to the family.
As the weekend gets under way in the close quarters of a crowded house filled with quirky, prying relatives, Dan and Marie try to squelch and cover up their growing mutual attraction at every turn, leading to one comical situation after another. Yes, no matter how hard they try to do the very opposite, Dan and Marie can’t help but fall in love. Now Dan is about to realize that no matter how wise safety might seem, when it comes to real life, he’s going to have to break all the rules.
Reviews & Articles
Rolling Stone
Review of Dan in Real Life
by PETER TRAVERS
Posted: Oct 18, 2007
San Francisco Chronicle
“Hedge’s screenplay, co-written by Pierce Gardener, is close to perfection, and he brings it home with truthful performances and camerawork that’s tasteful and psychologically astute.” – Mick LaSalle
Rolling Stone
“Blissfully funny and touching … Dan in Real Life [is] the real thing in romantic comedy in that its character manage to be romantic, hilarious and recognizably human at the same time.” – Peter Travers
The New York Times
“Hedges, a seasoned screenwriter, showed in his directorial debut, PIECES OF APRIL, that he could infuse tired conventions of domestic comedy with fres life and real intelligence. And here, working in a less self-consciously eccentric mode, he does it again.” – A.O. Scott