Review: Dan In Real Life is Easy-Going and Charming

As much as I roll my eyes at the generically ironic scenario -- he's an advice columnist, but his personal life is a mess! -- I'm delighted by the effortlessly breezy humor of Dan in Real Life. It breaks free from that lame set-up's confines to go deeper into the psyche of its central character. It's a smart movie with a deceptively simple premise.Dan (Steve Carell) is a New Jersey newspaper columnist and a widowed father of three daughters whom he loves and wants to keep young forever. He is the epitome of a Steve Carell character: hapless despite being successful, and upbeat despite being a loser. You get the sense he's just barely keeping his life together, that he's been just barely doing it for years, and that he could keep just barely doing it indefinitely. He's got just-barely-coping down to a science.

He and the girls go to Rhode Island for a weekend for an annual gathering of his parents, brothers, sisters, and their families. The clan is large, and I'm not sure I caught, in every case, which were Dan's siblings and which were his siblings' spouses. I kind of liked the hecticness of it, though. The long take where Dan first arrives and greets everyone felt exactly like my visits home for Christmas, where aunts and uncles and cousins abound and you try to say hello to everyone without making a spectacle of yourself or interrupting the festivities already underway.

The meat of the plot comes in the form of another potentially oh-too-wacky development. Dan goes into town to buy a newspaper and meets a beautiful woman named Marie (Juliette Binoche). They talk and laugh and have what seems to be a great connection. He gets her number and promises to call soon. When he gets back to the house, she is there, too. She is his brother's girlfriend, here for the weekend to meet the family.

The brother, Mitch (Dane Cook), looks up to Dan and quotes his writings liberally. Dan is smitten with Marie, though obviously now he can't do anything about it. Less clear is Marie's attitude toward Dan. She doesn't seem as head-over-heels about him -- or, for that matter, about Mitch -- as Dan and Mitch are about her. And would Dan really fall in love this fast, in one weekend, in the crowded, bustling family-reunion atmosphere? I'm skeptical, and the movie doesn't do much to allay my skepticism.

Yet, I'm charmed by the realistically cozy depiction of large families, with their inside jokes and their petty, lovable squabbles. There's a scene of extended riffing on a family acquaintance named Ruthie "Pig Face" Draper, which is terribly mean but terribly funny. (Don't worry, Ruthie isn't present.) Don't we all do that when we're together with the family? If it's not OK to make fun of people we know while in the safe confines of the family circle, when is it OK? That's what families are for.

This is the second film to be written and directed by Peter Hedges, who previously wrote What's Eating Gilbert Grape? His directorial debut, Pieces of April, was one of the indie gems of 2003, and it also dealt humorously and honestly with family ties. Here he lets the family stuff happen primarily in the background, focusing mostly on Dan's internal struggles. The Marie situation is the catalyst, but Dan's real issues go deeper than that, and the film is about him trying to get out of the emotional rut he's in. He could continue to live right on the edge of a nervous breakdown, he'd just rather not.

There's a happy ending, of course, and maybe it's just a little too easy. Maybe some of the conflicts are resolved more carelessly than they ought to be. On the other hand, what does Marie even see in Mitch? Look at it this way: it's Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook. I mean, come on.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Plains Travels With Carter

Sure, the exceedingly respectful "Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains" does play like an infomercial, with director Jonathan Demme following the former president around as he promotes his latest book.

That the book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" generated some controversy when it came out last year in no way means that the documentary itself will ever become controversial.

Demme asked for and received constant, intimate access to the 39th U.S. president, and ensured his subject that he intended to make a "warts-and-all" film about him. Turns out, Carter is a thoughtful, decent man who's kind, warm and engaging with everyone he meets, whether he's at a book signing, church barbecue or lunch with the honchos from Simon & Schuster.

In one instance, Carter grows vaguely testy during a phone interview when it becomes clear that the person questioning him on the other end of the line hasn't read his book. Then he seems slightly sheepish about having grown testy. It's like Ned Flanders admitting that he's guilty of having excessive pride in the community when it comes time to make a confession at church to Rev. Lovejoy.

Nevertheless, "Man From Plains" does reflect the complexities within Carter's personality. We often see him speaking passionately about bringing peace to the Middle East, and about the argument he makes in his book that the Israeli occupation of parts of the West Bank and Gaza is tantamount to the racial segregation that occurred in South Africa. Carter spars eloquently in that Georgia drawl of his with Charlie Rose and Larry King, but then he shows self-deprecating humor when he appears on Jay Leno's show.

He sweetly details how he and his wife of 60 years, Rosalynn, still read aloud to each other from the Bible every night before bed, even if they're in different cities and have to do it over the phone. (And sometimes when they're feeling frisky, they'll even read the Spanish translation!) But then he also has a little harmless fun flirting with the makeup artist for Tavis Smiley's show, a woman who calls him "honey" and "sweetheart" and gives him a farewell kiss on the cheek. Pretty permissive of those Secret Service agents.

But they do keep him safely on the periphery of the furor that surrounded him for the views he expressed in his book. A group of rabbis staged a protest outside a Phoenix bookstore where Carter was doing a signing one night; he zoomed away from it in his motorcade, but Demme and cinematographer Declan Quinn zeroed in on the outrage from both Jews and Palestinians.

Similarly, Alan Dershowitz wanted to set up a debate when Carter spoke at Brandeis University; the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner declined, but Demme achieves a bit of balance by giving Dershowitz sufficient time on camera to make his points. More often, though, we see Palestinians parading by Carter as he signs their books, nervously thanking him for all his diplomatic work.

Despite the impetus for the film, "Man From Plains" seems more interested in the man than in the politician. Demme devotes a bit of time to discussion of the key events that occurred during Carter's time in the White House the Iranian hostage crisis, peace between Israel and Egypt but he shows us two instances of the former president unexpectedly, unabashedly choking up. In one case, he's moved to tears while speaking before an audience at the Carter Center about that year's enthusiastic new crop of interns. And when critics of the book accuse him of being a bigot and an anti-Semite, he is visibly stung.

But maybe that was smart there's something refreshing about the humanity and guilelessness of these reactions.

Similar to the approach he took with his concert documentaries, "Stop Making Sense" and "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" (both excellent), Demme makes us feel as if we are a fly on the wall. We ride alongside Carter in the back of an SUV, we join him in the hotel pool for early morning swims. He doesn't insert himself, there's no structured interview format, we never see him or even hear his voice.

He simply, easily immerses us. It's the opposite of "Fahrenheit 9/11." And that's refreshing, too.

"Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains," a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated PG for some thematic elements and brief disturbing images. Running time: 125 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Carell's Dan Contrives Love

If you're already groaning at the prospect of spending time with your own lovable but annoying family over the holidays, think twice about seeing "Dan in Real Life." Do you really want to donate time and money to hang with someone else's annoying relations?

A love-triangle romance that plays out among Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook during a family reunion, "Dan in Real Life" is a surprisingly plain, sappy, even insipid comedy, considering the filmmaker behind it.

After years as a novelist and screenwriter, director and co-writer Peter Hedges made a wonderful film debut with another family-reunion tale, 2003's indie charmer "Pieces of April."

That film chronicled the icy history of a black-sheep daughter trying to make amends with her unforgiving clan over Thanksgiving. Those people were truly messed up and beset by adversity, yet they were utterly endearing and genuine.

The gang in "Dan in Real Life," which Hedges worked up from an original screenplay by Pierce Gardner (the woeful horror thriller "Lost Souls"), are fairly well-balanced and warmly affectionate among one another. And they are boring to the point of aggravation.

Throw in a heavy dose of sitcom artifice and gooey melodrama, and "Dan in Real Life" becomes toilsome.

Carell's Dan is a widowed advice-column writer raising three daughters, sturdy Jane (Alison Pill, stuck here playing the mother hen after her marvelous performance as a self-righteous sibling in "Pieces of April"), rebellious Cara (Brittany Robertson) and adorable Lilly (Marlene Lawston).

Four years after his wife's death, Dan's at a solid if lonely state of resignation, devoted to raising his daughters and not even dreaming of new love.

That changes as he and the girls head to the family homestead in Rhode Island, where Dan's parents (Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney) are playing host to their big clan of kids and grandkids.

At a bookstore, Dan's sense of romance is magically rekindled by an encounter with Marie (Binoche). The two hit it off immediately, but she turns out to be the new girlfriend of his brother Mitch (Cook), a nice lunkhead who clearly isn't as suited for Marie as Dan.

Awkward moments abound as Dan and Marie conceal their dalliance and rising attachment. Dan becomes increasingly frustrated and callous as his attraction grows, while his family embraces Marie as a potentially new darling in-law.

There are occasional flashes of chemistry and budding sentiment between Dan and Marie, which arise more from Carell and Binoche's low-key charm than from the story in which they're forced to muck about.

But their little mating dance mostly alternates between bad behavior by the jealous Dan, which makes you wonder why Marie's feelings for him deepen, and stupid gags and hijinks that would have been lame back in the days of "I Love Lucy." (A scene where they end up in the shower together is painfully contrived; where is Anthony Perkins and his "Psycho" knife when you need him?)

Emily Blunt, a scene-stealer as Meryl Streep's overbearing assistant in last year's "The Devil Wears Prada," is woefully wasted in an obnoxious role as a woman Dan takes on a double date with Marie and Mitch.

"Dan in Real Life" gets a bit of a toe-tapping boost from a blithe soundtrack of songs by Sondre Lerche, whose musical interludes are welcome respites from the monotony of everything else.

Just when the movie is supposedly reaching a dramatic climax, it slides to its low point as Ma, Pa, grown-up kids and all the anonymous cousins stage a talent show that just goes on and on in nauseating banality.

If this is real life, give us fantasy.

"Dan in Real Life," released by Disney's Touchstone Pictures, is rated PG-13 for some innuendo. Running time: 98 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Devil Has Impossible Details

"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" begins with an unflinching depiction of a tubby Philip Seymour Hoffman having vigorous vacation sex with the shapely Marisa Tomei.

(As George Costanza might exclaim, "Marisa Tomei!")

It's an image that's clearly meant to jolt us, but it's not nearly the most stunning or potentially implausible moment you'll see over the next two hours.

Sidney Lumet, working from the first script by playwright Kelly Masterson, harkens to his own classic "Dog Day Afternoon" with this story of a heist fueled by desperation, in which one bad decision leads to another with devastating results. But the veteran filmmaker also seems to be aiming for family dysfunction and tragedy on a Shakespearean scale, which proves elusive. Even for a group of innately selfish, screwed-up people such as these, the sabotage and double-crosses pile up to an extraordinary level.

Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers Andy and Hank, who plan to rob a jewelry store in a strip mall in suburban Westchester County, N.Y. Actually, big brother Andy plans the crime and coerces Hank into taking part, and from the very start we see the sibling dynamic that will be a crucial factor throughout the film. All these years later, Andy is still the bully and Hank is still boyishly meek.

It wouldn't appear that Andy needs the money, with his swagger, spacious office and lucrative job as a broker. The opening scene takes place as he and his wife, Gina, are vacationing at a luxurious hotel in Rio. But as Masterson's script shows by skipping around in time before and after the robbery through various characters' perspectives, Andy is a dude with some dark secrets and expensive habits. (His story line is the most compelling of all; it certainly helps that Hoffman can play this kind of flawed character in his sleep.)

Hank, meanwhile in yet another scruffy slacker role for Hawke is divorced, lives in a studio apartment and owes several months of child support to his sharp-tongued ex-wife (Amy Ryan, who also plays a brash character in the excellent "Gone Baby Gone"). He clearly could use the cash, but he doesn't have the smarts (or the luck) to pull off the crime correctly.

Naturally, nothing goes right, which exacerbates the brothers' already precarious financial and emotional situations. The worst part is, the jewelry store belongs to their parents (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris), which should have made it easier since they know everything about the place.

Curiously, neither brother feels guilty about ripping off mom and dad the store and its contents are insured, after all. And in a gratuitous wrinkle, Hank's been having an affair with Gina all along and doesn't seem to suffer a smidgen of remorse over that, either.

As a character drama, "Devil" holds some interest, since the structure allows us to get to know these people, and their problems, in pieces that eventually snap together to form a complete picture. (Michael Shannon and Brian O'Byrne have some blackly funny moments as a couple of low-level thugs who get sucked into the crime.)

But as a thriller it never really gets off the ground. You know that none of this can end well that's not hard to predict but rather than building toward a tense climax, destructive events and vengeful acts merely stack on top of each other until the film drags to its conclusion.

Because there's no one to root for to make it out of this predicament, it's hard to feel an engagement with any of the characters. The title comes from an Irish toast: "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead." None of these people had a chance to make it there in the first place.

"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," a ThinkFilm release, is rated R for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language. Running time: 123 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com