Dan in Real Life is a movie whose entire story you know in detail if you've seen the trailer. A widower (Steve Carell) takes his three daughters to a family reunion, of sorts, where he meets a girl and falls in love with her. Only to find out later that she's his brother's girlfriend. The fairly predictable plot never really kept my attention and never really surprised me. And neither did Steve Carell. The director decided to hinge the movie on his puppy dog innocence instead of his offbeat, awkward humor. He (and Dane Cook) had very little opportunity to make us laugh, thanks to the rather bland script. (One point in the middle, though, I did laugh. But it was because of the absurdly rich suburban activities he and his entire family were able to partake in on a non-holiday in a countryside.)Technically, there was nothing noteworthy. It was much more a romantic comedy chick flick than anything else, which I wasn't really expecting. Still, it accomplished what it set out to do (with few risks and fewer rewards), so I can't really give it a lower star rating than 3. But overall it was pretty disappointing if you're expecting a Steve Carell vehicle. If you're expecting blah, then this movie will satisfy you. But why would you watch a movie you knew to be mediocre instead of great?
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480242/