Dan In Real Life

I went and saw "Dan in Real Life" this past weekend. With Steve Carell (The OFFICE) being the main character and with the trailers I had seen, I was expecting a slap-stick comedy that would bring me to tears from laughing. But, the movie ended up being a little bit more on the serious side. Carell's character, Dan, ends up meeting the woman of dreams at a book store right before he goes to visit his family for the week. The only problem is that the woman of his dreams ends up being his brother's girlfriend. Along with this, Dan must also deal with his 3 daughters and being a good dad. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple of funny moments throughout the movie (Carell dancing), but the main theme is love and family throughout the movie. Carell turns in a great peformance and shows he is more than just a comedic performer.

So that was the good. Now, for the two bad things about this movie. First, Dan's family, is just way too perfect. The brothers, sisters, parents and kids get together for the week at a beautiful cabin in Rhode Island. They play games together, have dinners together and even have a family talent show. Now, admittedly my family is not perfect, but do any families really have this much fun together? It just wasn't believable. Second, this movie had many similarities to "The Family Stone", which was released in 2005. It almost seemed like the same movie with a few different twists.

Overall, not a bad movie. 3 out of 5 stars