Happy Monday, Readers. I hope you’re all well, as here rain often comes and goes. So it’s natural for everyone to have cough or flu. Anyways, you might realize that if you open the homepage of the blog, some recent posts doesn’t have an image. For some reason, I can’t upload an image to wordpress. But I’m working on it. As for this post, I’m trying on a new feature called Feel Good With. This is specially for feel-good movies that doesn’t necessarily inspire, but they deserve their own spot. I’m starting with Dan in Real Life (2007).
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With a sudden crave to see one of the greatest sensitive guy on screen, I long for seeing Steve Carell. Somehow I ended watching Dan in Real Life. It starred with one of the lovable cast in a romantic comedy, with Juliette Binoche in an American comedy has got to be special. I also grow fond of Emily Blunt, which starred also as Carell’s big fan.
Dan (Steve Carell) and his girls are taking a family weekend with their big family away from the big city. Taking his mother’s suggestion, Dan decided to getaway from the family’s cabin to let the girls cool off from him. He end up meeting Emily (Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore and lost track of time just talking with each other. It’s the first time Dan ever feel sure with a woman after his wife passed away.
Evidently, Emily is Dan brother, Mitch’s (Dane Cook) new girlfriend which broke Dan’s heart to see the family also growing to love her, even his daughters. The rest of family vacation becomes too chaotic for Dan to handle, makes his parents concern about him and his daughters hate him even more.
Maybe it’s just me that happens to rooting for Carell from the start, I didn’t get why his daughters (except for the youngest) seem to dislike their dad. Perhaps since he’s a dedicated single parent, the guy really protects his girls. He forbids his first daughter, Jane (Allison Pill) to drive, and won’t let the second, Cara (Britt Robertson) dates a guy from school. The youngest daughter, Lily (Marlene Lawston) is too adorable, almost as adorable as Drew Barrymore in E.T.
Much like Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), it’s natural for Carell to get our sympathy. The guy has a sensitive genes, and if you hate him it seems you’re the one with no heart. He clicks with Binoche who plays Emily, which is a exotic foreign woman who live a quite adventurous life before, so humble that everybody just likes her automatically. The problem is Emily dates Mitch instead, which is a guy like Dan with a hot bachelor attitude.
No one is really an antagonist in this movie. In fact, the whole family is so familiar and warm, makes me want to be in the cabin sit and hang out with them too. The cast is marvelous and performed an ideal casual and happy balanced family. Instead, it makes Dan the antagonist for adding a negative energy of his jealousy towards his brother. Things got really interesting when the pig-nose lady, Ruthie (Emily Blunt) that falls for him head over heels, turned out to be a hottie. This is the part where Binoche looks less shining, because of her jealousy on her and the fact that the boys are attracted to Blunt.
It’s no surprise that this movie is likeable, considering I’ve loved Peter Hedges movies, Pieces of April (2003) and The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012). The man also have written About a Boy (2002). Dan in Real Life used the recipe of many romantic comedies in America, with lovable cast, especially Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. I think it would be better to focus on Dan’s column as a journalist in the start of the movie, as an addition of his life as a dedicated single parent. It would explain how Blunt really crazy of him because of his writings and it would somehow connect more on his own life. But overall, I was quite entertained with this feel-good movie. Sondre Lerche as the whole soundtrack also a pleasant addition. You can rent this one for a lazy afternoon with family and friends.
Final Score :