Dan in Real Life

Did you all know that I love Steve Carell?  I do.  So, I was very excited to go see this movie that just made him look as cute as a button in the previews.  The set up is this: He is Dan Burns, a widowed advice columnist with three daughters who is beginning to encounter the same problems with which his readers approach him. An annual family tradition, Dan packs his girls into the family station wagon and drives them up to his parent’s house to close it up for the summer.  There he is reunited with his parents (Dad played by John Mahoney from Say Anything!) and his siblings.  The first morning his mother sends him on an errand and while in town he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche).  He helps her pick out books and spends what seems to be several hours sharing a muffin breakfast and talking.  Before they part she lets him know that she is seeing someone but they exchange phone numbers (you know, to be friends). Of course, arriving home, he discovers that Marie is Mitch’s (his brother, played by Dane Cook, very funny in this) new girlfriend.  Very much hair pulling and nail biting ensues as Dan becomes convinced that she is the only one for him and can’t figure out how to betray his brother and be happy at the same time.  As a friend of mine would say, this film is too cute cute.  I felt that there was very little focus on what he does for a living, considering the title of the film comes directly from the title of his column, but the scenes of family activities were so nostalgic and heart warming.  You can understand how he can’t come to terms with risking his family for love.  And did I mention that I love Steve Carell?