Black & White World

Dan in Real Life (2007)

Fairly by rote rom-com with Steve Carell as Dan Burns, a widower with three kids, who falls in love at first sight with Marie (Juliette Binoche).  One problem:  she’s already seeing someone.  Okay, two problems:  the someone that she’s seeing is Dan’s brother.  Usually romantic comedies help the viewer out by making it clear that “the other man” isn’t right for our heroine, making him out to be a bad guy.  They didn’t do this in Dan in Real Life, however they did cast the odious Dane Cook as the brother, which certainly made it easier.  Steve Carell vs. Dane Cook?  Not really a contest.  There’s a few spoilers below—which really aren’t spoilers if you have seen more than three Hollywood romantic comedies.

By about the halfway mark I realized that this movie had no way to resolve to a happy ending.  Either Carell would end up with Binoche, which would alienate his entire family, or he would do the honorable thing and step aside for his brother, but still end up alone—which is not how romantic comedies are supposed to end.  The script solved this by going with the first option, but being completely unrealistic about the consequences.  Because there weren’t any.

Steve Carell was great; the material was maybe a little beneath him but he went a long way towards making the movie palatable for me.  I think he has the most expressive eyes of any actor working today, and the same sadness that he brings to his comic portrayals like Michael Scott on The Office, that sadness translates just as well in a dramatic context.  He had good chemistry with Binoche, who was also quite good.  I dislike Cook, as I believe I have made clear, but he was always on screen with someone who was more interesting to watch, so I was not overtly bothered by his presence.  Overall:  average.  The soundtrack, performed by Norwegian-born Sondre Lerche, was far and away the best part of the movie.