Simply A Masterpiece

Load of rubbish!!

Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

I picked this up at a pound store so my expectations were low. I hadn't heard of the film but I like Steve Carell so thought I would give it a watch. What unfolded was a funny, sensitive, entertaining story about a man struggling with his life as a single parent. There are details here that are beautifully handled. I am surprised that this film is not better know. I hope people will seek it out. It's a treat!

Sometimes you start watching a film that you're not really sure about. And then it surprises you. This was my experience with 'Dan in Real Life'.I thought this film was wonderful. It is so rare to find a film that mixes so much humour and warmth without being cloying or farcical. But everything about this film clicks both in terms of storytelling and cast. You know you're onto a winner when you have an actor of John Mahoney's quality in a very small role.The fact is that this could happen in real life and the results would probably be much the same as they are on screen. I know some people take the approach of "I see real life everyday, I go to the cinema to escape it" but this film is very much a celebration of family life and love and those things are just as important as big budget blockbusters with CGI galore.

The movie was interesting. It kept flowing. The characters were likable, which is important to me. I don't want to watch a movie about people I don't care about. I really liked the whole family atmosphere. I liked the way the family played together and had fun together. It was really nice. His misery on finding out that the woman he just met is with his brother was played nicely. You could just feel how awful that would be. You meet somebody that you think is special, and then suddenly what seemed to be the starting point of a relationship turns into the end of the relationship. It's especially frustrating and unbearable when the more you get to know of the person, the more you like them. The family was so close and the woman was so accepted as the brother's girlfriend that I had to wonder how in the world it would ever be possible for him to end up with the woman, even if she were to decide that she preferred him over the brother. It seemed as if it would just be unthinkable, because the brother and the rest of the family would hate him then. I'll leave it to you to see how it turned out. Incidentally, the given description gives away something at the beginning of the film and I think it should be changed so that it doesn't do that. (If it were to be changed, I'd have to modify my review so as to not give away anything.) I think I enjoyed this movie primarily because of the characters and because of the nice family feeling that was evoked. It's too bad more families can't be like this.

I really rather enjoyed this Carrell vehicle, although I'm much the same sort of middle-aged, middle-class, regret-sump everyman that he plays. This is the point of the film: it's created to tee up the easy-going end of Carrell's shtick and the drama funnels itself down a chicane of warm circumstantial comedy into a happy ending.This doesn't mean one shouldn't like it. Juliette Binoche may be a little Bohemian for the setup but it productive to have that grit in the oyster of an extended family. Carrell is very professional and plays a Dad extremely well, all the self-rapprochement and misgivings deeply buried but not hidden. The family at large is barely believable but not incredible largely because of Diane Wiest, who fulfils the same role to the cast as a mother would to such a family - gravitational centre. The three young daughters are excellent. 5/10