During a Q&A session at the recent Heartland Film Festival, Mark Zoradi, the president of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, let it be known that the official position is now that the Disney labels (Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone) are out of the R-rated movie business. Going forward, nothing will be worse than a PG-13.
Such promises tend not to hold much weight if the right script comes along or when five straight movies underperform. Personally, I’m just happy that this policy should keep Disney from trying to re-enter the suspense/thriller/horror marketplace. On the other hand, though, life is R-rated and I don’t think everything that Disney produces needs to be appropriate for a 10-year-old.
If going 100 percent family means a slate full of Wild Hogs knock-offs then frankly I’m not interested. But in the same week I learn that news, along comes Dan in Real Life to show me a future that may not be so bad.
As a synopsis Dan in Real Life doesn’t really sound promising, but rather wearyingly familiar. Our protagonist, Dan (Steve Carell), is at one of life’s crossroads. Over a long weekend at a traditional extended family gathering, everything will come to a head and by the end he’ll be moving in a new, more satisfying direction. The specifics are that Dan is an advice columnist for a local newspaper who may be about to break into syndication, but who also trying to deal with three daughters growing up and creating challenges that emphasize the challenges of being a widower.
The long weekend is a family tradition at a Rhode Island beach house that is, quite frankly, extravagant. This giant house on the shore is a place I can easily imagine as the Kennebunkport retreat for the Bush clan. The house will be full of family, most of them with relationships never really clarified (in fact, there is one Asian child running around the otherwise WASP-filled house).
Dan is just starting to realize that after four years he is lonely and ready to find love again. The opportunity presents itself when he runs into Marie (Juliette Binoche) while out buying morning newspapers. It is love at first self-deprecating witticism and they spend the morning talking. Of course, later in the day she is then introduced back to him—as the late-arriving girlfriend of his brother Mitch (comedian Dane Cook).
Three days isn’t much time, but that’s all that is available to get everything straightened out.
Without much effort, any regular movie watcher will be able to name a dozen movies sharing significant elements. Personally, throughout I found myself thinking “this is an awful like like The Family Stone but with less meanness, and Binoche is much nicer to look at than Sarah Jessica Parker.”
Somehow it doesn’t matter. Steve Carell quickly puts out of mind his rote performance in Evan Almighty and instead somehow combines the fresh-faced honesty of Andy in The 40 Year Old Virgin with the weariness and awareness of Frank in Little Miss Sunshine. A whole, real person results. One that isn’t as funny as either of those but has a real emotional connection. Unfortunately he is forced through some pratfalls and antics reminiscent of Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents, but he saves them from ever descending completely into sitcom territory (though comes dangerously close with a fall from the roof).
Marie, however, isn’t quite a sufficient drive for Dan’s passions. From a distance it is easy to see why she’d draw anybody’s eye, but the movie never really provides enough of a character to explain why Dan is in love with her after just a couple hours (during which is the only one who talks). But Binoche is fine in what she is asked to do. Comedian Dane Cook continues his sidekick role as Mitch.
The real surprise of the movie is found in Dan’s two older daughters, and this may be where the cross-over appeal comes in for this movie. Jane (Alison Pill) is 17 years old and fighting for the freedom and respect of finally being allowed to drive, while Dan continues insisting it is too much responsibility. Here the audience is pretty firmly on her side.
Cara (Brittany Robertson), however, is 14 and certain she has found true love and that her father is murdering it by insisting she can’t date for another two years. On this issue, parents and kids in the audience will likely split in their support. In both cases, though, Jane and Cara feel real. They are not just caricatures of teenagers. They reminded me a lot of my sisters when they were that age.
The criticisms of these movie will be easy, and hard to argue against. As mentioned, there is little about it that tries to cover new ground; it is hard to talk about this movie without mentioning other movies. It is a very sterile world the Burns family lives in and in that respect lives up to the stereotype of a Disney family movie. The ending is little too pat and a lot too abrupt.
So I’ll grant the detractors all of those things. And the only defense I can offer is the only one that really matters: I enjoyed myself while watching it and afterwards realized it had made me happy. That isn’t the only criteria on which a movie can be judged, but sometimes it is enough.
- Dan in Real Life is a Touchstone Pictures release
- Wide release October 26
- Directed by Peter Hedges
- Written by Pierce Gardner and Peter Hedges
- Starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Alison Pill, Brittany Robertson, Marlene Lawston
- Running time: 100 minutes
- Rated PG-13 for some innuendo
- Alex’s rating: 8 out of 10
