Wednesday 18th August 2010

Dan in Real Life

Director: Peter Hedges
Year: 2007
Stars: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dianne Wiest

I wanted to watch Eastern Promises. A film that's been recommended and I've wanted to see since it was released. I had recorded Eastern Promises, and was all set to watch it. Turns out it aired later than scheduled on TV, and we didn't have the second half recorded. So Dan in Real Life it was instead - something rather different.

The film follows (no surprises here) Dan (Carell) as he takes his three daughters and goes to spend some time with his family. There, he meets a girl (again, no big surprises) but things are rather more complicated than at first they seem.

This all makes the movie sound rather more exciting than it is. The thing with Dan in Real Life is that, well, it's attempting to portray Dan in real life. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - in fact, it some ways it makes for quite a refreshing film. But it does mean that things just seem a bit, well, normal. That isn't to say the film is slow - plenty happens to keep you watching. It's just that at the same time nothing much really happens. Like real life in many ways, I guess.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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About Me

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I live in Bristol with my husband Dan (who I married in July 2007), my son Joe (born 2012) and daughter Jess (born 2015). I work at UWE (the University of the West of England) in Bristol as a Research and Open Access Librarian. I'm orginally from Exeter, so moving back to Bristol is a bit like coming home - especially as I studied for my undergraduate degree here (also at UWE). I love travelling and movies, although I get to do a lot less of both since the birth of our children. Although we have still managed to fit in holidays to the Isles of Scilly, Chamonix and a summer in California since Joe was born.