CINEMA: Dan In Real Life

The American family get-together at holiday time (usually Christmas or Thanksgiving) film that ends in battles, tears and eventual reconciliation now deserves its own genre.  It’s pretty much been done to death, but there’s a slightly new twist on this tired old formula here, where it is not conflicts between family members per se that form the backbone of the story, but one particular rivalry.

This arises unexpectedly between widowed Dan (Steve Carell), who drives his three daughters to the annual family reunion on Rhode Island, and his brother Mitch (Dane Cook) who has brought with him his new main squeeze Marie (Juliette Binoche). Dan realises Marie is the woman he has been waiting for all his life, but what can he do to convince the rest of his family she’s the one for him and not his kid brother?

This would be an intriguing set up if it weren’t so contrived. Unfortunately, everything that happens between Dan, his family and Marie is a bit staid and stilted and what should be all-out fun, fisticuffs and squabbles lacks energy and conviction. The luminous Juliette Binoche looks out of place and uneasy and even the best of efforts from the always dependable Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney as Dan’s mum and dad can’t boost the movie out of its run-of-the-mill rut.    Dee Pilgrim