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Dan in Real Life
Touchstone Pictures


6.2

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 104 votes
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FILM:

Pieces of April

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Pierce Gardner Peter Hedges
DIRECTED BY:	Peter Hedges
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 11, 2008 Theatrical: October 26, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	95 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

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...

100

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.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A nimble and supple and moving comedy.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Carell shows a whole new side to his talents.

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.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A smart, sweet, and thoroughly disarming ensemble comedy that isn't afraid to wear its humanism on its sleeve.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Dan in Real Life is basically a slightly less-sappy version of "TheFamily Stone."

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Sweet it is. Remotely connected to real life, however, it is not.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Empire Ian Nathan

A small but sweetly formed comedy of romantic misfortune that can’t quite keep Hollywood at bay.

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.

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Dan in Real Life takes a pleasant premise and calls upon the talents of engaging actors and generally squanders both.

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.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

All goes according to course, and that's exactly the problem with Dan in Real Life.

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.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Filmgoers haven't seen a family this neurotically enmeshed since the last Diane Keaton movie.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

With all its cloying, tone-deaf attempts at genuine emotional warmth, all it really deserves is to be avoided.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 104 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jon C. gave it a0:
Very strange movie. I was waiting for it to turn surreal - I thought maybe they were making it bad on purpose. But no, this is supposed to be a real movie with real outdoor morning aerobics for the family and even a talent show with costumes. Reminded me of a Cosby Show episode. Maybe it was a computer generated script - I wouldn't be surprised as they seem to think the more CG the better.

Devon S. gave it an8:
A cute, humorous, and lighthearted tribute to the sitcoms of America.

Anne M gave it a2:
Sickening cloying cliche-filled flick that made me reach for the Maalox. You can see every solution to every plot line a mile away. The only thing I liked in this movie was the house...and the relief of the credits at the end.

Midou M. gave it a7:
i hate rating movies before watching them, but i couldn't help but give this feature a 7/10 just for the cast because the story sounds dull and pretty much like every family movie.

Evan S. gave it a2:
The draw of “Dan in Real Life” is its pedigree cast – a mix of Hollywood moneymakers like Steve Carrell, Emily Blunt, and Juliette Binoche with Broadway heavy hitters Dianne Wiest, John Mahoney, Nobert Leo Butz and Amy Ryan. Seriously, these performers can sit in a circle and read a phone book for 90 minutes and they can do no wrong. It’s actually preferred over the concept of “Dan in Real Life." A movie that’s average (like this one) outright fails when a cast as amazing as this is wasted and relegated to deep background with a hollow script that is all fun and games, all laughs and smiles. The movie feels like a sham where no character is worth exploring and every hook is easy and lame. After a promising opening, the movie falls into a zombielike drone where the characters and scripts feels slapped on, disingenuous and even ugly. You can’t fault the cast for landing a Hollywood payday, but when assembling these supremely talented actors, Hollywood needs to pony up a decent script and give this cast a movie that has more substance than a commercial for teeth whitening strips.

Ammon V. gave it a9:
The only thing bad about this movie is Dane Cook.

Robert I. gave it an8:
filled with apercus about family life, it hits home again and again. Maybe many families in Real Life do not continue to live this way, but many do, or wish they did, and the script talks to them in a recognizable, almost painfully funny way. The director gets the family tone just right--and love is going to fall where it will, regardless.

Dan in Real Life Touchstone Pictures

Dan in Real Life
Touchstone Pictures