Happiness is a virtue that wholly belongs to them who genuinely love and understand and are good, to themselves and to everyone around them. If you don’t deserve it, you can only fake it and fool people for a while, like the protagonist in Dan in Real Life who happens to be one of the most sought after advice columnists.
You’d think that a fellow who is well-known and respected for their opinions ought to know how to take care of their own lives. The truth, though, often turns out to be quite to the contrary. Dan (Steve Carell) a single parent with three growing-up girls finds it virtually impossible to communicate with his own children. That’s how most people are: one way in their professional life, and quite the opposite with their friends and family.
The kind of sentences too that they throw to their near and dear ones aren’t of the kind they deliver to their audiences. ‘You can’t fall in love with someone in only a few days’, Dan yells. He packs the girls in his car and drives down to his parents’ place, faraway. There, he himself falls headlong in love with a girl. At first sight.
The atmosphere is heavenly. Like the snow outside, time freezes as they sip their coffee, unhurriedly. Laughing together, sharing those special moments as the rain falls softly on the window sills, in a perfectly-lit cabin seated in a blue landscape, the cinematographer makes them appear like the ideal couple.
But oh, life has a sad way of suddenly falling apart just when you think you’ve begun to get lucky. Some of the things that seem too perfect may not be destined to last for very long.
Steve’s the stereotypical honest-bumbling American. Displaying emotions of this kind aren’t new to Juliette Binoche, who earlier gave a searing performance as a mother who offers herself to a helpful man in Breaking and Entering. And the guilt and shame of their illicit relationship is written all over their face.
Some of the dialogues that his family delivers are pure gems. They are from his own writings. Quotes he would rather not hear. Because writers can be so different in real life. And often could do well with tons of their own advice.
Peter Hedges rom-com is a little sad in a way. Circumstances force the protagonist to mess things up in his family life. But it’s not like his kids don’t love him. He just needs to pull himself together, be a little more understanding, and go find what he needs. Else, of course, he could always read his own columns.
