Dan in Real Life

Steve Carell has become one of Hollywood's leading comic actors, rising from his humble Daily Show origins to become a full-fledged mainstream movie star. His latest film Dan in Real Life is a slightly more somber venture than his previous roles as a middle-aged virgin and a new-age Noah. The film stars Carell as Dan, a columnist for a local newspaper who is faced with the daunting task of raising three daughters after the death of his wife. When Dan takes his kids to a family vacation home and unites with family, he quickly falls for his brother Mitch's (Dane Cook) lovely girlfriend Marie (Juliette Binoche).

As evidenced by his awkward and inappropriate character in The Office, Carell can make even the most revolting character likeable. He does so here and manages a far more agreeable outcome than ignoramus Michael Scott. Dan cares about his daughters' personal lives, spends extra time making their sandwiches with smiley faces and longs for a new woman in his life.

Dan and Marie's increasing attraction to each other makes for several funny incidents, although more than a few scenes fall flat. In a hilarious scene near the beginning of the film, Dan's teenage daughter and her boyfriend of only three weeks become emotionally devastated for having to be away from each other for a weekend. As they express their undying love for one another, Dan feverishly drives her away.

But what begins as a funny concept-teenage girl thinks she's in love with a guy she's known for less than a month-quickly gets dragged out over and over again into a hokey theme drilled repeatedly into our forehead. After an additional mess of sappy scenes-Marie overhears Dan tell his daughter how he understands the pain of loving someone she can't be with; Dan is confronted by his three daughters about naughty Marie-the message we have been told multiple times, namely that Dan's daughter's feelings for her boyfriend are intertwined with his own feelings for Marie, becomes stale and far from endearing.

Without the performances of Carell and Binoche, Dan in Real Life is a sub-par film. Fortunately for us, the experience is generally enjoyable if only to see Carell prove again why a further rise to rock-star status is imminent, if only a better script comes his way.

-Greg Bobrinskoy