Dan in Real Life 2007

Dan is kinda a dick in real life. My second Peter Hedges film in two days. This isn’t as good as Ben Is Back but I don’t think it was trying to be. So this film started and I was pretty happy, coz it looked like we were gonna get a completely nice, non awkward, cool Steve carell character. But then he was presented with an awkward situation and became a bit of a dick, extremely awkward and the opposite of cool.  This film is weird. There’s a scene when Dan is about to go on a date with a girl they remembered as having an ugly face, so one of them starts playing piano and they all sing together as a family about how Dan is about to go on a date with a “pig face” girl. It’s super weird and kinda cruel. They were all laughing like it was funny and not mean it was so strange. It was also extremely obvious from as soon as she was called pig face that she was gonna be extremely attractive and she was. Also (sorry I still have problems with this) why the hell would he agree to make this a double date with his brother and the girl he likes. He’s either a complete idiot or it was an extremely forced scenario that the film makers tried adding in.  Also a scene when Dan is hiding in the shower from his daughter so she doesn’t see he’s in there with his brothers girlfriend. His daughter wants to talk to the lady and she says she was about to have a shower. The daughter says it’s fine have a shower while I talk, so she awkwardly strips off naked and gets in the shower while Dan is hiding in there. Why she didn’t say I’m not gonna have a shower while you're in the room, or let’s talk outside first and I’ll shower after, or many other options that don’t involve creating an awkward sitcom scenario, I have no idea. This film just was weird sometimes.  Also I kind of just felt bad for Dan. He handled the situation horribly after I was ready to say he was my favourite Steve Carell character, then the film got kinda depressing. They tried using comedy to make it less depressing but it wasn’t that funny.  I sound like I don’t like the film, I did it was fun. It’s just they made the brother a really nice guy so you don’t even want Dan to end up with the girl, you just are left feeling bad for him. I do like the story, though it was kinda simple, there were other interesting elements like the fact his wife died and his family want what’s best for him. Also the argument he had with his daughter at the start about how long it takes to fall in love, mirrored in his own life when he meets the girl and falls in love instantly with his brothers girlfriend. I also really liked Dan at the start, he was a great Dad and seemed like a really nice guy up until the dinner scene when he started being a dick.   His daughters also both were kinda annoying characters. Shower girl who wants to drive and the one that’s entire character is that she loves her boyfriend and Steve Carrel is against it. I found it funny that after all the shitty stuff Dan did the older daughter was mostly mad about him not being a good driver since he wouldn’t let her drive. Such a weird film, I could see what it was trying to do and I feel like it could have been a good film but it ended up just being a basic dumb romantic comedy.   Also it’s funny how they never explained why the whole family showed up and caught them at the bowling alley. It’s like the writer wanted them to get caught kissing on a date but thought it didn’t matter why they ended up there. It’s such a weird moment, the lights turn on after the old lady turned them off and literally the whole family is there. And the stuff with the brother is never fully resolved.  I’ve written too much about this I didn’t hate it I just had a lot of problems with it. Still gonna give it a  6.5/10