The Movie Nut

I'm somewhat amazed at the kind of pre-release negativity "Dan in Real Life" is generating in certain circles. Steve Carell is Hollywood's current poster boy of choice. Juliette Binoche is, well, Juliette Binoche. And the Burns family, whose elder members are portrayed by the patriarchal and matriarchal John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest respectively, is surrounded by a clutter of wellbehaved towheaded Central Casting tykes.

This is a distinctly atypical cinematic nondysfunctional family. Nobody's running with scissors around here. Nobody's swimming with squids and whales. No Family Stone blues. In other words, if we could magically pick our own real-life heritage from a catalog of makebelieve movie families, many of us would probably point to the Burnses, tails wagging, and shout, "I belong there!"

So I suspect many of the film's detractors just aren't used to such fairytale normality rearing its ugly head, showing us excessive family bliss (even though house rules dictate that men and women, even married couples, sleep in separate rooms- proving that even the best families can be a bit weird).

For those who've noticed that I've already garnished "Dan in Real Life" with four acorns (because we're too trendy for stars around here), please understand that it's the same rating I bestowed on "The Holiday" and "The Lake House." So, yes, I can be as sentimentally mushy as the next new-age dude. (My wife says it's my feminine side glowing. She says that's a good thing. Whenever my wife likes something about me, I generally don't disagree.)

All of which is my way of saying that if cuddly, fine-tuned romances don't sway you- well, "Saw IV" opened last week as well. And, gosh darn, that's why I love America. There's just something for everyone.

Dan Burns (Carell) is a newspaper columnist, a widower with three too-precocious daughters. The overprotective Dan dotes on them because, as a single parent, he has little else to occupy his life. But two of his girls have now entered those nefarious teenage years when having a hovering single father is roughly akin to contracting The Black Plague.

Thus Dan sets out for the Burns' family annual gettogether with two strikes against him already. When he arrives, seemingly lost amid the bustle of his well-adjusted and sensible siblings, his preoccupation with the girls irritates everyone else- they all know it's just a teenage phase. So his mother sends him out to buy the paper.

Which is where Dan bumps into Marie (Binoche). Their sudden attraction is apparent. It's also obvious that Dan's not been so besotted since his wife's death four years ago. They agree to sit down for a cup of coffee, time passes- and suddenly Marie's running off to meet her new boyfriend's family. Dan is chagrined.

The irony here is- get ready for it, can you feel it?- Marie's boyfriend is Dan's younger brother, Mitch (Dane Cook). Dan must spend his next few days watching his brother and his new girlfriend flirt, although Marie's hesitation, those fleeting glances at Dan, throw his normally sensible and compassionate gyroscope into a tizzy.

That's pretty much the film- and my feminine side gently sighs for the next 90 minutes because writers Peter Hedges and Pierce Gardner gave Dan, Marie and Mitch some wonderfully inventive personalities and dialogue to match. If, as romantic comedies go, there's nothing particularly new at play here, there are some wonderfully joyful (and alternately wistful) moments between Dan and Marie, Dan and Mitch, Marie and Mitch- and with Mom and Dad as well.

Okay, there are a few toohokey moments, a couple of tooeasy emotional escape routes, but the story becomes neither overtly slapstick nor maudlin. And I sense a real chemistry between Carell and Binoche, which is something I really like to see when two people in a film are pretending to be in love. Or wondering if they're in love. Or pretending not to be in love in front of the children, who really are far too observant for their own good.

So, yes, I really liked this one. I fell for the whole family's touchy-feely togetherness thing. I like Dan and I like Marie and I like them falling in love. Even my masculine side seems okay with that.