I went to a preview screening of Steve Carell’s new film last night, Dan in Real Life. The tickets were freebies but I wouldn’t have minded paying to see this film.
Carell (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty) plays Dan Burns, a forty-something widower, with three daughters. He writes for a newspaper column called Dan in Real Life (hence the title) and offers insights on how to cope with modern family life. The irony is that he is struggling to understand his two teenage daughters and rapidly losing their respect.
The four head down to Dan’s parents’ house for a reunion and on the way manages to upset all three girls with his misguided parenting. His mum insists he has some “cooling off” time and heads off to a book store to buy a paper. While there he meets a woman (while giving random advice on books) and persuades her to have a coffee with him. After a long conversation (where Dan does most of the talking and we learn nothing of the mysterious Marie, played by Juliette Binoche) she gets a call and reveals she has to be somewhere - she is already in a relationship. Dan convinces her to give him his number and she drives off.
When Dan gets back home his brother (Mitch) and brother-in-law notice he is acting strange. They manage to extract the reason why - he has met this amazing woman. He starts to talk about her and eventually the rest of the family listen in and someone suggests they ask Mitch’s new girlfriend, who turns out to be Marie. Awkwardness and wistful glances ensue.
The film is enjoyable, with a good pace and generally likeable characters. Carell is easy to warm to and is obviously trying to pull away from pure comedic roles. But that’s not to say this isn’t a funny film. There are some very funny parts and Carell performs them well. Binoche’s character seems a little confused at times - one moment she is supposed to be well-bred and well travelled, and the next she appears lost and ditzy. Her appearance in the bookshop is ok until she launches into a short monologue about the kind of books she is looking for - it made me cringe. However, the on-screen chemistry between the two leads works well.
Dan’s three daughters are played well, with well written parts that make the two teenagers believable and not annoying or merely stereotypes. The stories about his daughters that run parallel to the main are conveniently tied up at the end.
This is a romcom of sorts, but the kind I can stomach. No Hugh Grant, no big soundtrack, no massive press campaign - usually they’re rammed down my throat a couple of weeks before their release and I’m fed up with it before I’ve even bought my ticket. It also deals with bereavement, family life (both close and extended) and “finding your way”, but lets not pretend this is a deep film. Its not quite throwaway and little bit cheesy, but enjoyable.
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Another thing that is slightly confusing - these new films are to be a “re-invention” of the franchise. As Empire points out “James Cameron’s films were incredible and, aside from a couple of dated effects shots, look just as good today.” Maybe the re-invention will come from allowing more humanoid robots, as the shots of the robo-human war from the original Terminator films showed most of the ‘bots looking like metal skeletons rather than the Muscles from Brussels. More humans means more actors, which means (possibly) more names and more bums on seats. Cynical? Maybe, but I thought this series was finished already. I think the hunger for robots after Transformers is there, and certainly CGI is more than capable, so a fully metallic army would be much more impressive.