Life > November 8, 2007

By Jordan Brewster | Staff writer

With the release of his new film, it’s finally been confirmed that Steve Carell is really good at being real.

It’s what made his most popular films so popular, like the idea that it is possible to actually be a 40-year-old virgin.

Dan in Real Life uses this to make a touching and funny film filled with characters that manage to be hilarious, romantic and human all at the same time.

Carell is a marvel as Dan Burns, the widower-writer of a family advice column with three daughters (Marlene Lawston, Brittany Robertson and Alison Pill).

Although he dishes out daily counsel to hopeless parents, he seems to be unable to heed his own advice.

In the years since the death of his wife, Dan has been setting rigid rules for his daughters and doing nothing for himself.

Then, when he least expects it, he meets a woman in a bookstore while in Rhode Island for a family reunion.

Marie (Juliette Binoche), the girl from the bookstore, is able to make Dan laugh and maybe even more importantly she makes him want to make her laugh.

While very funny, Dan in Real Life is very different from Carell’s past roles and he showcases a whole new side of his talents.

While his characters in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office as well as Dan could be real people, Dan in Real Life is more serious and touching – it is not outrageous funny, it is human funny. Instead of wringing laughs out of his situation, he allows them to seep through his Charlie Brown-esque anguish.

The film superbly relates the audience to Dan. You can feel Dan’s longing for the invigorating and lovely Marie as well as his horror when he returns to his parents’ house and finds out his new love is also the new love of his brother Mitch (Dane Cook).

The plot seems too much like a sitcom, but because Carell, Binoche and writer/director Peter Hedges keep it real, the film is a winner.

After the meet-cute, the movie glides for the next hour as Dan roasts in his own frustration. We watch as he suffers while Marie charms his family, as well as her spandex clad work-out sessions.

Meanwhile he tries to keep his oldest daughter from driving, his middle daughter from boys (“You are a murderer of love!” she cries at one point), as well as keep all of the younger children entertained (they are instead scared off by his depression).

His family is not completely ignorant to his plight, however, and set him up on a date with the local Ruthie “Pig Nose” Draper (Emily Blunt).

The story is as shy as Dan is. Whenever the potential for major ridiculousness comes up, it doesn’t break the surface. Instead it slinks away, as if it wasn’t in the mood to be in the spotlight.

Dan in Real Life is star-driven, romantic, funny and sophisticated. It is aimed at actual adults and uses the most pleasing sort of unforced charm and a marvelous plot to examine the conflicts of family and romance as well as the joys and pains of being in love.