Dan in Real Life
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Dan in Real Life".Peter Hedges has snuck up on us. He is no newcomer to film comedy. At age 45, he has written the novel and screenplay for the offbeat, felicitous "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," penned the screenplay for the sharply observed comic drama "About a Boy", wrote and directed the wonderfully dysfunctional Thanksgiving comedy "Pieces of April" and now has co-written and directed "Dan in Real Life".
This latter film, among many other fine things, provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads. While not a perfect comedy, "Dan" is certainly a crowd-pleasing, cleverly engineered and well-executed divertissement that should put grins on the faces of movie fans of many ages and execs at Disney and Focus Features.
Hedges' focus, at least up to this point, is the family. He also likes to deploy multiple stories that give you a big, chaotic mess within which smaller, intimate moments of tenderness or romance can exist. Here he brings together a large, boisterous family for an annual fall weekend in Rhode Island.
Dan (Carell) writes a family-advice column, Dan in Real Life. He is a widowed father of three girls, two of which are teens, meaning Dad is the last person you would go to for advice.
So he brings to this gathering mostly cranky daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), who wants to use her new driver's license and to be treated like an adult; Cara (Brittany Robertson), who believes she is the first person in the world to discover love; and 8-year-old Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who is smarter than Dan can possibly realize.
Longtime playboy brother Mitch (stand-up comic Dane Cook) means to introduce his family to his new squeeze, but before he can do So Dan unwittingly makes her acquaintance in a bookstore. He falls head over heels for Marie (Binoche) without realizing that she is his brother's new girlfriend. The sequence plays a little too meet cute but nonetheless features charming acting by Carell and Binoche. This predicament sets up any number of comically awkward situations in a huge, multibedroom seaside house belonging to Mom and Dad (veterans John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest, who cagily play things straight).
What Hedges does here so brilliantly is allow us to see two people fall madly in love in a situation where no one else can be aware of their passion. Eye contact and tugs at the mouth from Carell and Binoche do the trick very nicely, while the animated clan provides an engaging backdrop of familial love, thwarted though intense feelings -- that would be Cara -- longings for recognition -- that would be Jane -- and wounded behavior by the entire group once they realize Dan's deception. There also is a priceless drop-by appearance by beauteous Emily Blunt, who is becoming the queen of comic supporting roles.
The third act is a disappointment. It feels labored and unconvincing in its attempt to wrap up a convoluted situation that the Greeks would have handled with a god descending from the heavens to sort it all out.
No matter. Getting there was all the fun.
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Focus Features
Credits:
Director: Peter Hedges
Screenwriters: Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges
Producers: Jon Shestack, Brad Epstein
Executive producers: Noah Rosen, Darlene Caamano Loquet, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda
Director of photography: Lawrence Sher
Production designer: Sarah Knowles
Music: Sondre Lerche
Co-producer: Dianne Dreyer
Costume designer: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Sarah Flack
Cast: Dan: Steve Carell
Marie: Juliette Binoche
Mitch: Dane Cook
Jane: Alison Pill
Cara: Brittany Robertson
Lily: Marlene Lawston
Nana: Dianne Wiest
Poppy: John Mahoney.
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
This latter film, among many other fine things, provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads. While not a perfect comedy, "Dan" is certainly a crowd-pleasing, cleverly engineered and well-executed divertissement that should put grins on the faces of movie fans of many ages and execs at Disney and Focus Features.
Hedges' focus, at least up to this point, is the family. He also likes to deploy multiple stories that give you a big, chaotic mess within which smaller, intimate moments of tenderness or romance can exist. Here he brings together a large, boisterous family for an annual fall weekend in Rhode Island.
Dan (Carell) writes a family-advice column, Dan in Real Life. He is a widowed father of three girls, two of which are teens, meaning Dad is the last person you would go to for advice.
So he brings to this gathering mostly cranky daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), who wants to use her new driver's license and to be treated like an adult; Cara (Brittany Robertson), who believes she is the first person in the world to discover love; and 8-year-old Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who is smarter than Dan can possibly realize.
Longtime playboy brother Mitch (stand-up comic Dane Cook) means to introduce his family to his new squeeze, but before he can do So Dan unwittingly makes her acquaintance in a bookstore. He falls head over heels for Marie (Binoche) without realizing that she is his brother's new girlfriend. The sequence plays a little too meet cute but nonetheless features charming acting by Carell and Binoche. This predicament sets up any number of comically awkward situations in a huge, multibedroom seaside house belonging to Mom and Dad (veterans John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest, who cagily play things straight).
What Hedges does here so brilliantly is allow us to see two people fall madly in love in a situation where no one else can be aware of their passion. Eye contact and tugs at the mouth from Carell and Binoche do the trick very nicely, while the animated clan provides an engaging backdrop of familial love, thwarted though intense feelings -- that would be Cara -- longings for recognition -- that would be Jane -- and wounded behavior by the entire group once they realize Dan's deception. There also is a priceless drop-by appearance by beauteous Emily Blunt, who is becoming the queen of comic supporting roles.
The third act is a disappointment. It feels labored and unconvincing in its attempt to wrap up a convoluted situation that the Greeks would have handled with a god descending from the heavens to sort it all out.
No matter. Getting there was all the fun.
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Focus Features
Credits:
Director: Peter Hedges
Screenwriters: Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges
Producers: Jon Shestack, Brad Epstein
Executive producers: Noah Rosen, Darlene Caamano Loquet, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda
Director of photography: Lawrence Sher
Production designer: Sarah Knowles
Music: Sondre Lerche
Co-producer: Dianne Dreyer
Costume designer: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Sarah Flack
Cast: Dan: Steve Carell
Marie: Juliette Binoche
Mitch: Dane Cook
Jane: Alison Pill
Cara: Brittany Robertson
Lily: Marlene Lawston
Nana: Dianne Wiest
Poppy: John Mahoney.
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dan in Real Life
Peter Hedges has snuck up on us. He is no newcomer to film comedy. At age 45, he has written the novel and screenplay for the offbeat, felicitous What's Eating Gilbert Grape, penned the screenplay for the sharply observed comic drama About a Boy, wrote and directed the wonderfully dysfunctional Thanksgiving comedy Pieces of April and now has co-written and directed Dan in Real Life.
This latter film, among many other fine things, provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads. While not a perfect comedy, "Dan" is certainly a crowd-pleasing, cleverly engineered and well-executed divertissement that should put grins on the faces of movie fans of many ages and execs at Disney and Focus Features.
Hedges' focus, at least up to this point, is the family. He also likes to deploy multiple stories that give you a big, chaotic mess within which smaller, intimate moments of tenderness or romance can exist. Here he brings together a large, boisterous family for an annual fall weekend in Rhode Island.
Dan (Carell) writes a family-advice column, Dan in Real Life. He is a widowed father of three girls, two of which are teens, meaning Dad is the last person you would go to for advice.
So he brings to this gathering mostly cranky daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), who wants to use her new driver's license and to be treated like an adult; Cara (Brittany Robertson), who believes she is the first person in the world to discover love; and 8-year-old Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who is smarter than Dan can possibly realize.
Longtime playboy brother Mitch (stand-up comic Dane Cook) means to introduce his family to his new squeeze, but before he can do So Dan unwittingly makes her acquaintance in a bookstore. He falls head over heels for Marie (Binoche) without realizing that she is his brother's new girlfriend. The sequence plays a little too meet cute but nonetheless features charming acting by Carell and Binoche. This predicament sets up any number of comically awkward situations in a huge, multibedroom seaside house belonging to Mom and Dad (veterans John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest, who cagily play things straight).
What Hedges does here so brilliantly is allow us to see two people fall madly in love in a situation where no one else can be aware of their passion. Eye contact and tugs at the mouth from Carell and Binoche do the trick very nicely, while the animated clan provides an engaging backdrop of familial love, thwarted though intense feelings -- that would be Cara -- longings for recognition -- that would be Jane -- and wounded behavior by the entire group once they realize Dan's deception. There also is a priceless drop-by appearance by beauteous Emily Blunt, who is becoming the queen of comic supporting roles.
The third act is a disappointment. It feels labored and unconvincing in its attempt to wrap up a convoluted situation that the Greeks would have handled with a god descending from the heavens to sort it all out.
No matter. Getting there was all the fun.
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Focus Features
Credits:
Director: Peter Hedges
Screenwriters: Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges
Producers: Jon Shestack, Brad Epstein
Executive producers: Noah Rosen, Darlene Caamano Loquet, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda
Director of photography: Lawrence Sher
Production designer: Sarah Knowles
Music: Sondre Lerche
Co-producer: Dianne Dreyer
Costume designer: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Sarah Flack
Cast: Dan: Steve Carell
Marie: Juliette Binoche
Mitch: Dane Cook
Jane: Alison Pill
Cara: Brittany Robertson
Lily: Marlene Lawston
Nana: Dianne Wiest
Poppy: John Mahoney.
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
This latter film, among many other fine things, provides Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche with comic roles that fit them like designer threads. While not a perfect comedy, "Dan" is certainly a crowd-pleasing, cleverly engineered and well-executed divertissement that should put grins on the faces of movie fans of many ages and execs at Disney and Focus Features.
Hedges' focus, at least up to this point, is the family. He also likes to deploy multiple stories that give you a big, chaotic mess within which smaller, intimate moments of tenderness or romance can exist. Here he brings together a large, boisterous family for an annual fall weekend in Rhode Island.
Dan (Carell) writes a family-advice column, Dan in Real Life. He is a widowed father of three girls, two of which are teens, meaning Dad is the last person you would go to for advice.
So he brings to this gathering mostly cranky daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), who wants to use her new driver's license and to be treated like an adult; Cara (Brittany Robertson), who believes she is the first person in the world to discover love; and 8-year-old Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who is smarter than Dan can possibly realize.
Longtime playboy brother Mitch (stand-up comic Dane Cook) means to introduce his family to his new squeeze, but before he can do So Dan unwittingly makes her acquaintance in a bookstore. He falls head over heels for Marie (Binoche) without realizing that she is his brother's new girlfriend. The sequence plays a little too meet cute but nonetheless features charming acting by Carell and Binoche. This predicament sets up any number of comically awkward situations in a huge, multibedroom seaside house belonging to Mom and Dad (veterans John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest, who cagily play things straight).
What Hedges does here so brilliantly is allow us to see two people fall madly in love in a situation where no one else can be aware of their passion. Eye contact and tugs at the mouth from Carell and Binoche do the trick very nicely, while the animated clan provides an engaging backdrop of familial love, thwarted though intense feelings -- that would be Cara -- longings for recognition -- that would be Jane -- and wounded behavior by the entire group once they realize Dan's deception. There also is a priceless drop-by appearance by beauteous Emily Blunt, who is becoming the queen of comic supporting roles.
The third act is a disappointment. It feels labored and unconvincing in its attempt to wrap up a convoluted situation that the Greeks would have handled with a god descending from the heavens to sort it all out.
No matter. Getting there was all the fun.
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures/Focus Features
Credits:
Director: Peter Hedges
Screenwriters: Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges
Producers: Jon Shestack, Brad Epstein
Executive producers: Noah Rosen, Darlene Caamano Loquet, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda
Director of photography: Lawrence Sher
Production designer: Sarah Knowles
Music: Sondre Lerche
Co-producer: Dianne Dreyer
Costume designer: Alix Friedberg
Editor: Sarah Flack
Cast: Dan: Steve Carell
Marie: Juliette Binoche
Mitch: Dane Cook
Jane: Alison Pill
Cara: Brittany Robertson
Lily: Marlene Lawston
Nana: Dianne Wiest
Poppy: John Mahoney.
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Flightplan
"Flightplan" is a modern-day variant on Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 classic "The Lady Vanishes", only the lady in question is a 6-year-old girl and she doesn't disappear on a train but rather 37,000 feet above the Atlantic on a Berlin-to-New York flight. Where Hitchcock sought mystery and comedy, this film from young German director Robert Schwentke ("Tattoo") places its emphasis on paranoia and anger. One can easily dismiss the film as a tricked-up thriller, which surveys the geography of a jumbo jet and the calculus of human emotions in tight quarters to entertain audiences for a taut 95 minutes. But there is something really nasty about this cold, calculating exercise in mob psychology and human venality.
Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster might draw audiences on opening weekend, and who knows what the spectacular drama this week at LAX may do for an in-flight melodrama. But audiences might react adversely to such transparent manipulation for so weak a payoff. The Walt Disney Co. will be hard-pressed to equal the success of the year's other in-flight thriller, "Red Eye", which has grossed more than $55 million.
Foster is working here in the woman-on-the-edge/protective-mother mode that helped drive David Fincher's "Panic Room" to boxoffice success. She goes for a gaunt look and a ruthless obsession that a casual observer might well interpret as paranoia. Flight attendants and most passengers are openly contemptuous of her efforts, angry that she is disturbing an otherwise peaceful flight and absolutely certain they never saw a child in her company board the plane. Not one single person?
The movie starts oddly, as if in a bad dream. A woman, Kyle Pratt (Foster), shuffles zombielike through empty, snowy streets of nighttime Berlin. She is accompanied by a man we later learn is an apparition of her late husband, who days before fell or jumped from the top of their apartment building. Writers Pete A. Dowling and Billy Ray and the director are clearly trying to raise doubts about the widow's sanity. Yet the effort is off-putting as it situates a thriller in an unreal or even surreal world, where a viewer can trust nothing onscreen.
The rest of the movie takes place aboard a jumbo jet, where its personnel are unduly hostile toward passengers, a few Arabs are thrown in to raise the flag of terrorism and two seemingly reasonable men, air marshal Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) and Captain Rich (Sean Bean), struggle to satisfy the distraught mother.
None of the movie's tricks or twists will be revealed here. But audiences are asked to swallow the following assumptions: that no one on a packed flight saw Kyle's daughter, Julie (Marlene Lawston), not even the children seated directly in front of her; that no one noticed anyone escort a probably unwilling child up the aisle while her mother slept; that an entire airline company, post-Sept. 11, is still susceptible to rudimentary sabotage; that Kyle just happens to be an aircraft engineer who knows the plane's configurations better than the crew does; and, finally, that our bad guy(s) can anticipate each and every far-fetched coincidence.
Cinematographer Florian Ballhaus' camera maneuvers within the airplane set to maximize emotions. The camera moves in tight when Schwentke wants to disorient or distract us. Then it backs away to survey the cabin mood. It zeroes in on one flight attendant (Erika Christensen) to make us suspicious. It warmly treats the space surrounding the friendly and helpful air marshal. Extreme close-ups on Foster and a therapist (Greta Scacchi in a cameo), conveniently onboard, make us doubt the existence of a daughter.
Throughout, Foster plays the intensity with an operatic passion. Conversely, Sarsgaard is flexible and likable, while Bean is professionally stiff. Kate Beahan plays a sourpuss flight attendant who regards the situation with a disapproving and drawn face. Assaf Cohen is the designated Arab, whom passengers pick on for his ethnicity.
Press notes trumpet the fact that the fictional aircraft was largely designed by producer Brian Grazer and the director. Perhaps this is a new creative field for the two as the interior has a snappy retro design, cheerful bars, large galleys and posh, inviting lounges.
FLIGHTPLAN
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures and Imagine Entertainment presenta Brian Grazer production
Credits:
Director: Robert Schwentke
Screenwriters: Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray
Producer: Brian Grazer
Executive producers: James Whitaker, Charles J.D. Schlissel, Robert DiNozzi, Erica Huggins
Director of photograp: Florian Ballhaus
Production designer: Alexander Hammond
Music: James Horner
Costumes: Susan Lyall
Editor: Thom Noble
Cast:
Kyle Pratt: Jodie Foster
Carson: Peter Sarsgaard
Julie: Marlene Lawston
Captain Rich: Sean Bean
Stephanie: Kate Beahan
Obiad: Michael Irby
Ahmed: Assaf Cohen
Fiona: Erika Christensen
Mr. Loud: Shane Edelman
Mrs. Loud: Mary Gallagher
Therapist: Greta Scacchi
MPAA rating PG-13...
Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster might draw audiences on opening weekend, and who knows what the spectacular drama this week at LAX may do for an in-flight melodrama. But audiences might react adversely to such transparent manipulation for so weak a payoff. The Walt Disney Co. will be hard-pressed to equal the success of the year's other in-flight thriller, "Red Eye", which has grossed more than $55 million.
Foster is working here in the woman-on-the-edge/protective-mother mode that helped drive David Fincher's "Panic Room" to boxoffice success. She goes for a gaunt look and a ruthless obsession that a casual observer might well interpret as paranoia. Flight attendants and most passengers are openly contemptuous of her efforts, angry that she is disturbing an otherwise peaceful flight and absolutely certain they never saw a child in her company board the plane. Not one single person?
The movie starts oddly, as if in a bad dream. A woman, Kyle Pratt (Foster), shuffles zombielike through empty, snowy streets of nighttime Berlin. She is accompanied by a man we later learn is an apparition of her late husband, who days before fell or jumped from the top of their apartment building. Writers Pete A. Dowling and Billy Ray and the director are clearly trying to raise doubts about the widow's sanity. Yet the effort is off-putting as it situates a thriller in an unreal or even surreal world, where a viewer can trust nothing onscreen.
The rest of the movie takes place aboard a jumbo jet, where its personnel are unduly hostile toward passengers, a few Arabs are thrown in to raise the flag of terrorism and two seemingly reasonable men, air marshal Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) and Captain Rich (Sean Bean), struggle to satisfy the distraught mother.
None of the movie's tricks or twists will be revealed here. But audiences are asked to swallow the following assumptions: that no one on a packed flight saw Kyle's daughter, Julie (Marlene Lawston), not even the children seated directly in front of her; that no one noticed anyone escort a probably unwilling child up the aisle while her mother slept; that an entire airline company, post-Sept. 11, is still susceptible to rudimentary sabotage; that Kyle just happens to be an aircraft engineer who knows the plane's configurations better than the crew does; and, finally, that our bad guy(s) can anticipate each and every far-fetched coincidence.
Cinematographer Florian Ballhaus' camera maneuvers within the airplane set to maximize emotions. The camera moves in tight when Schwentke wants to disorient or distract us. Then it backs away to survey the cabin mood. It zeroes in on one flight attendant (Erika Christensen) to make us suspicious. It warmly treats the space surrounding the friendly and helpful air marshal. Extreme close-ups on Foster and a therapist (Greta Scacchi in a cameo), conveniently onboard, make us doubt the existence of a daughter.
Throughout, Foster plays the intensity with an operatic passion. Conversely, Sarsgaard is flexible and likable, while Bean is professionally stiff. Kate Beahan plays a sourpuss flight attendant who regards the situation with a disapproving and drawn face. Assaf Cohen is the designated Arab, whom passengers pick on for his ethnicity.
Press notes trumpet the fact that the fictional aircraft was largely designed by producer Brian Grazer and the director. Perhaps this is a new creative field for the two as the interior has a snappy retro design, cheerful bars, large galleys and posh, inviting lounges.
FLIGHTPLAN
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures and Imagine Entertainment presenta Brian Grazer production
Credits:
Director: Robert Schwentke
Screenwriters: Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray
Producer: Brian Grazer
Executive producers: James Whitaker, Charles J.D. Schlissel, Robert DiNozzi, Erica Huggins
Director of photograp: Florian Ballhaus
Production designer: Alexander Hammond
Music: James Horner
Costumes: Susan Lyall
Editor: Thom Noble
Cast:
Kyle Pratt: Jodie Foster
Carson: Peter Sarsgaard
Julie: Marlene Lawston
Captain Rich: Sean Bean
Stephanie: Kate Beahan
Obiad: Michael Irby
Ahmed: Assaf Cohen
Fiona: Erika Christensen
Mr. Loud: Shane Edelman
Mrs. Loud: Mary Gallagher
Therapist: Greta Scacchi
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/7/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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