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Dan in Real Life

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 116 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Romance
Written by:
Pierce Gardner
Peter Hedges
Directed by: Peter Hedges
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 26, 2007
DVD: March 11, 2008
Running Time: 95 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some innuendo
Starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Norbert Leo Butz, John Mahoney, and Dianne Wiest
Advice columnist Dan Burns is an expert on relationships, but struggles to succeed as a brother a song and a single parent. (Touchstone Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Pieces of April
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Dan in Real Life fires on so many circuits that at times it's actually shocking how good it is.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
As a director Hedges is smart enough to allow his actors to share the frame and interact and let the material breathe.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
A smart, sweet, and thoroughly disarming ensemble comedy that isn't afraid to wear its humanism on its sleeve.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Dan offers the most pleasing kind of unforced charm as it uses a terrific plot device to examine the conflicts between family and romance as well as the joy and pain of being in love.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Deftly interlaces heart and humor in a witty, warm and well-observed comedy about the unexpected and inconvenient blooming of romance at the weekend gathering of an extended family.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Novelist-turned-writer/director Peter Hedges follows up his "Pieces Of April" debut with a comedy that's at once overstuffed and surprisingly subtle.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
If the film has a flaw, and I'm afraid it does, it's the Sondre Lerche songs on the soundtrack. They are too foregrounded and literal, either commenting on the action or expounding on associated topics. In such a laid-back movie, they're in our face.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Watching Binoche dithering about an American comedy takes some getting used to, but she's a believable soul mate for the hangdog Carell. The rest of the family, however, has got to go.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The anti-Ben Stiller comedy: There's humiliation aplenty but no mugging, no abuse to the crotch region, no straining to be outrageous.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
In a brief review in Time magazine this week, I gave Dan a gentleman's B-. Let me try to remember why. Because the pressure of keeping his ardor secret turns Dan pleasingly cranky.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
There's nothing groundbreaking about Dan in Real Life -- it's a picture that could have been made 10 or 20 years ago -- and yet its easygoing, affable nature is exactly what makes it pleasurable.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Dan in Real Life is neither wildly farcical nor mockingly cruel, but rather, for the most part, winningly gentle and observant.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
In the end, the commercial necessity of wrapping up a family comedy in less than 100 minutes seems to have trumped anything real about Dan's life.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Dan in Real Life is basically a slightly less-sappy version of "TheFamily Stone."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Sweet it is. Remotely connected to real life, however, it is not.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Almost reflexively, the filmmakers skirt Dan's messier conflicts. But it is the moments when they don't dance around the awkward issue of a brother falling for his brother's girl that Dan is the most poignant.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Cook has as much depth as a coaster, so it's impossible under any circumstances to imagine Binoche falling in love with him. Her complicated, heartfelt performance is the reason to see the film: When she's around, she pierces the soothing gray nothingness with shafts of sunlight.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
Dan in Real Life steals from that line in "Virgin" about Carell kinda looking like Luke Wilson, since here Carell is, after all, playing the Luke Wilson role from "The Family Stone."
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
On its own terms, the picture is at least as contrived as it is charming and its characters in many cases bear less resemblance to flesh and blood human beings than those in a Farrelly brothers farce.
Read Full Review >Empire Ian Nathan
A small but sweetly formed comedy of romantic misfortune that can’t quite keep Hollywood at bay.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The cozy, lived-in atmosphere created by the ensemble and the unlikely chemistry of Carell and Binoche are so genuine that you wish the rest of the film was just as effortless and authentic.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Beneath its aw-shucks, wants-to-be-liked exterior, this is a bankrupt motion picture. It's cloying, artificial, and not the least bit romantic.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Dan in Real Life takes a pleasant premise and calls upon the talents of engaging actors and generally squanders both.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Pleasing moments don't add up to a feature film, even though this one strives desperately for substance and coherence by slathering its slender story with treacly family values.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
All goes according to course, and that's exactly the problem with Dan in Real Life.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Robert Koehler
Bad movies invariably stem from bad ideas, and the worst of the several rancid ideas packed inside of Dan in Real Life is that Steve Carell could be the new Alan Alda.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Filmgoers haven't seen a family this neurotically enmeshed since the last Diane Keaton movie.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
There's a great movie to be had in the notion of a busybody whose advice keeps blowing up in his face, but Dan in Real Life merely sets it up and walks away.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The setup of this comedy by director-cowriter Peter Hedges (Pieces of April) and some subsequent twists may be contrived, and the laughs aren't very plentiful, but much of the behavior seems real, and the able cast makes the most of it.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
With all its cloying, tone-deaf attempts at genuine emotional warmth, all it really deserves is to be avoided.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
I could see people enjoying Dan in Real Life, I guess -- the scenery is nice and the people are pretty and the songs are cute little emotion substitutes. But Dan? Buddy? It's not all about you.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 116 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Cole M gave it a4:
This movie was sooooo......I don't know. Such a normal, mediocre movie. It is something I could see becoming my mom's favorite movie. I love Steve Carell in The Office and Little MIss Sunshine but I absolutely hated this movie. I give it a 4 because a) everyone loves it and b) Steve Carell is in it.
Shannon gave it a10:
I loved it! Great storyline, clean humor, very heartfelt... definitely one to add to the family collection.
Kathy E. gave it a10:
I loved this movie. It is warm and clever and funny, with so many little intricate touches contributing to the story line, the character development and the feel-good feeling of it. No, the family was not realistic, but the individuals in it were, as you got a glimpse into each of them in "just three days". I still feel great and hopeful even 24 hours after watching it.
Matt L gave it a0:
Got this movie from the rental video and actually stopped watching halfway thru the movie.. I couldn't stand; 1) The cheesy feel good family scenes 2) The whole family falling head over heels over Juliette Binoche's character.. which I feel is totally NOT realistic 3) Juliette Binoche's character's labeled as pretty, beautiful etc.. which I can't see it at all.. I'm totally baffled in what they see in her?!?! Throw her in the mall and I bet ya that you wouldn't give her a second look.
Vauhgn L. gave it a2:
Quite possibly the most boring movie I've ever seen. The characters are boring, the story is boring and the comedy falls flat.
Anne M. gave it a10:
I loved this film! I'm not really sure why so many people found it disappointing. It really seems to be genuine and heartfelt, and achieves just the right balance of comedy, drama, and romance. And the chemistry between Steve Carrell and Juliette Binoche is sparkly and fun... they really make the film work. It is so refreshing to see a romantic comedy without gratuitous sex and unnecessary adult language that people of all ages can enjoy. Two thumbs up!
D'kotah G gave it a1:
Terribly formulaic, two-dimensional characters. The dance/music scenes were excruciating. It felt like an 80's movie that everyone forgot about, justifiably. Carrell was Ok though. The "family" dynamic was entirely unrealistic. Not recommended for anyone who like good things.
