‘Dan’ comfortably realistic (3.5/5)

Dan In Real Life

Starring: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook
Directed By: Peter Hedges
Rating: PG-13 for some innuendo
Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

What happens when everyone loves your girlfriend — including your brother?

“Dan in Real Life” is a welcome blend of laughter and familial warmth, directed and written by Peter Hedges (“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” “Pieces of April”).

Although the plot is nothing extraordinarily fresh or new, the cast plays it out so organically that it seems downright believable. This while having the notorious grandstander Dane Cook in one of the lead roles.

The story follows a family weekend at the parents’ cabin in Rhode Island through the perspective of New Jersey newspaper advice columnist Dan Burns (Steve Carell). After losing his wife four years prior, Dan’s life has become a shallow reflection of his family-focused column. Since his wife’s death, he has found himself alone and not knowing how to raise his three daughters, each of whom is at a pivotal stage in their life: Jane, eager to begin driving and exercise her newfound independence; Cara, a typical teenage angster who is positive she is madly “in love” with a boy after three days; and Lilly, who is just passing through the final stages of childhood.

Dan’s relationships with his daughters are very realistic, being a single dad with no clue as to the inner workings of a teenage girl’s mind. As Lilly, tells him: “You’re a great dad, but sometimes you’re a bad father.” Despite his career success, Dan finds himself lacking when it comes to being in charge of an actual family.

When he arrives at the cabin, Dan’s parents (wonderfully played by Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney) encourage him to go to the town by himself and allow his daughters to be without him for a time.

While at a local bookstore, Dan runs into the smart, charming Marie (Juliette Binoche). For the first time, Dan seems truly comfortable and finds himself telling Marie everything about his past, including his late wife. The conversation is cut short when Marie gets a phone call and tells him that she has to go. Dan realizes that he doesn’t know a thing about her but that he already feels a connection. When she tells him that she has a boyfriend, they agree to meet to finish their talk one day, something they both tell each other (and themselves) would simply be between friends.

When he returns to the cabin, he tells his brothers, including Mitch (Dane Cook), that he met a woman at the bookstore. Being family, Dan is quickly grilled about her, an event that ultimately involves the entire family and their relieved happiness for him until Mitch’s girlfriend arrives:

Marie.

What follows is a hilariously awkward weekend as Dan fights with his obvious attraction to Marie and his brotherly obligations toward Mitch. Too, Marie finds herself growing closer and closer to Dan while weighing her feelings toward Mitch, who is falling head over heels for Marie.

Dan is everything an uncomfortable person in love should be. He’s awkward, fidgety, irrationally angry and absolutely relatable. Dane Cook is amazingly reserved in his role as Mitch — something both welcome and unexpected. Also, while many may consider the role of middle-child Cara to be overplayed (screaming at her father that he is a “murderer of love,” for instance), she is in fact painfully reminiscent of high school melodrama.

Also, while the movie can at points be considered predictable, it actually unfolds in a realistic way that makes it believable rather than a pure work of entertaining fiction.

Dan in real life? Dan IS real life.

3 1/2 of 5 stars