Advice columnist Dan Burns 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.
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vertex reviewed Dan in Real Life (2007)
A feel-good romantic comedy
Dan in real life is faithful to its name. The movie is about Dan and about real life. Dan is a widowed father of three daughters. He’s a good guy who takes care of is daughters and neglects his love life. By accident Dan meets someone who seems to cause an interesting conflict among his relatives.
The story concentrates around Dan and his relatives. At times, the warmth between the relatives seems almost too flawless. I think that just a little more conflict would have been welcome to make the whole thing more believable. However, the challenges that Dan faces with his daughters feel pretty real. All the drama is spiced up with mostly good tasted humor.
Before watching the movie I was skeptic about Steve Carell’s skills but it’s obvious that he can act and in this movie he performs very well. Juliette Binoche is good as always. Dan in real life is a well acted and heartwarming romantic comedy and family drama. The movie is clearly better than many glittering Hollywood comedies but never manages to be extraordinary.