Product Description

Steve Carell (THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN TV's THE OFFICE) Hollywood's leading funnyman stars in the hilarious comedy that's bursting with charm -- a movie you'll watch again and again. Advice columnist Dan Burns (Carell) is an expert on relationships but somehow struggles to succeed as a brother a son and a single parent to three precocious daughters. Things get even more complicated when Dan finds out that the woman he falls in love with is actually his brother's new girlfriend. Carell is joined by a brilliant all-star supporting cast including Juliette Binoche Dane Cook John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest for a heartfelt fun-filled comedy that's "laugh-out-loud funny" -- Steve Oldfield FOX.System Requirements:Running Time: 98 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/FAMILY GATHERINGS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 786936732658 Manufacturer No: 05416600

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #791 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2008-03-11
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
Steve Carell’s best film performance to date can be found in the fitfully engaging Dan In Real Life, where his long-suffering persona suits a character who lets his long-dormant hopes rise for a moment, only to be shot down again. Carell plays Dan Burns, a newspaper columnist who writes about family issues and relationships. As a widower with three growing girls to raise, however, the difference between Dan’s printed wisdom and his struggles with fatherhood and loneliness is often vast. He’s put to a severe test when he packs up the kids for a cabin holiday with his parents and siblings, then falls for the exotic, if elusive, Marie (Juliette Binoche) during a solo excursion to a bookstore. Stirred by a woman for the first time since his late wife, Dan is shocked to find that Marie is actually dating his brother Mitch (Dane Cook), and that she’ll be spending the vacation with him in the midst of his family. From that point, the script, co-written by director Peter Hedges (Pieces of April), pretty much becomes a parade of difficult circumstances under which both Dan and Marie have to keep their attraction to one another secret. Certain scenes work better than others, but there is an overall monotony to the movie that isn’t helped by a lack of onscreen chemistry between Binoche and Carell. Both actors are fine on their own terms, but whatever is supposed to be clicking between Marie and Dan isn’t compelling enough to make one truly care that they get together somehow. Still, this is a film with plenty of moments to like, especially when Carell gets to broaden his previous range of emotions in a movie. --Tom Keogh

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Customer Reviews

You'll love Steve Carell in this.
I had the chance to watch Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche, this week, and may I just say that I'm beginning to think Steve Carell can play whatever role he chooses? The man has displayed some range, people, range that you often don't see in a "comedic" actor. This tendency reminds me a bit of Jim Carrey, but I think that Carell's style is subtler and funnier.

In this movie, Carell plays Dan, a widowed newspaper-advice columnist with three daughters. Dan has carried a torch for his late wife since her death (which was four years prior to the events of the movie). As the film opens, Dan is bundling his little family up for an annual visit to his parents' house. Once there, he makes a short errand into town, where he meets Marie (Binoche) in a book shop. The two feel an instant connection, and they sit and talk for hours. Later that evening, Dan is more formally introduced to Marie. She's his brother's new girlfriend. (Ouch.)

During the days that follow, we watch Dan as he breaks down personal and professional barriers, learns more about what it means to put family first, and actually begins listening to some of his own advice.

Carell and Binoche, I thought, were both wonderful in this, and the script taps into something that many screenwriters fail to give enough credit to - women love men who make them laugh. Comedians can play romantic leads, if they are allowed to use the aspect of their personalities that makes them (in some cases) most attractive - their senses of humor. People make jokes all the time, and at least SOME of them are really funny. We don't see enough of such light banter in film, probably because it plays best when ad-libbed, and in scripts it seems so often over-rehearsed.

Carell perfectly captures the sort of giddy, joking high that one gets when one finds a kindred spirit. Dan and Marie make each other laugh, and they think the same things are funny. (Incidentally, I though Carell and Binoche had great chemistry in their scenes together.) This is a warm, funny story, and it's perfectly suited for family viewing. (It's got a PG-13 rating.)

A Pleasant Date Movie
Wow, Steve Carrell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook all in the same movie. I've never heard of Dane Cook until I read all these comparisons of him to the late great American icon comic George Carlin. And now he has a featured role alongside one of the most accomplished French actresses in cinema, Binoche. Dan in Real Life, is obviously going to attract fans of "The Office's" Steve Carrell, who is very good in this movie, but if you're not a fan of any of the principal actors, then this is just another harmless date movie. As Hollywood stories go, Dan in Real Life, comes up with a plot device centuries old and a conclusion just as antique. There are some unexplicable happenings, but movies are a fantasy world, where imagining the impossible has to come true. Dan in Real Life is fictional but it's also fun. In it's own unique way, "Dan in Real Life" is a pleasant reminder that it's never too late to find your other half.

Watching a man mope isn't entertainment
Watch a depressed, dejected, sullen faced man mope around for two hours. Sounds like a barrel of laughs! Dan in Real Life is two hours of watching a middle aged man mope. That, and be a controlling father obsessed with squashing his teenage daughter's sexuality. But see, its cute that he wants to slap a chastity belt on his daughter, because he's upset over not having love in his own life. Enter, Juliet Binoche - alluring no matter how brain dead this role is. Dan falls for her in a bookstore, even though she doesn't tell him a word about herself. But it is true love, see, because she giggles at all of Dan's banter as he talks about himself non stop for an hour. Here comes the Three's Company moment - Juliet is dating Dan's brother! Now Dan can mope around sulking and acting like a baby because Juliet is with his brother and not him. Isn't that cute and charming? Look, Dan has a temper tantrum at the dining room table, ha ha! Oops, Dan has to hide in the shower and the water gets turned on! Tee-hee, Dan watches Juliet's butt while she does aerobics with Dan's brother. Dan in Real Life is situation comedy to the max. But wait - you don't want to miss the sentimental moment when Dan sings Let My Love Open the Door to Your Heart! He hasn't played guitar or sang since his wife died, cue the tears. Bleck. Gag. Will Dan get the girl, or choke on a bottle of Zoloft? Only masochistic movie goers will find out.