Review of “Dan In Real Life,” “Darjeeling Limited” & “Moliere”
It is not often that a contemplation of a relatively run of the mill — if entertaining — romantic comedy comes with a caveat about family life. Extrapolating one’s extended family situation from a comparison to the Burns clan in “Dan In Real Life” is fraught with peril.
Single father of three girls, Steve Carell, visits with ma and pa and sis and brothers and their kids over the holidays. Of course the patriarchs live a bucolic seaside manse in Rhode Island. And the family idles away their days in good humor and without any appreciable dysfunction, competing on crossword puzzles, doing jazzercize, having talent shows and playing touch football.
Who do they think they are, the Kennedys?
Family gatherings are rarely if ever like the Burns’. Be careful when leaving the flick that you don’t ponder the reality of your family’s interaction with the cinematized romance of this — or any — movie.
Carell is a widower of four years and he meets beguiling Juliette Binoche at the town bookstore, is smitten as she is, and later discovers she is his brother’s new girlfriend, up to join the family for the holiday. Uncomfortable, furtive situations ensue.
Nothing happens in the film that you wouldn’t expect. It is manipulative and sometimes painfully obvious in how it plays on its audience’s heartstrings. We know how it’s going to end from Carell’s and Binoche’s first laugh upon meeting. All of which is underscored by the fact the Carell’s brother is played by Dane Cook.
I find this actor cloying and obnoxious. I didn’t understand how he was cast as a romantic lead in “Good Luck Chuck.” And, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why the producers here would think we’d believe for a nanosecond that Binoche would ever give him a second glance.
But Cook’s presence, while it might have, is not enough to derail the film. It’s soft and heartening and pleasant. But it’s Buyer Beware. Lots of family holiday gatherings coming up in the next couple of months. It would be a real disservice were anybody who saw this movie to lament that their family isn’t as picture book as that of Steve Carell.
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Speaking of familial observations, how about the acquired taste that is Wes Anderson. He wrote — along with Roman Coppola — and directed “The Darjeeling Limited.” What would one expect from the creator of “The Royal Tennenbaums” other than a out of kilter look at a skewed family situation?
Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman are brothers on a truth-seeking trek through India. They want to find themselves, their relationships with each other, their mother (Anjelica Houston) who is living in an Indian convent after not posting at their father’s funeral, and their relationships with her.
Some of the above items are resolved. Some not. Just like real life. But it’s all exposed in a quirky fashion, sometimes funny, sometimes maudlin, often uncomfortably.
There is a bonus attraction for those smitten with Rachel Portman. The movie starts with a short featuring Schwartzman and Portman in a tryst at a hotel in Paris. You get to see more of Portman than ever before. If you know what I mean. It is as if she took the role to declare she is an adult, willing to take risks in the roles she chooses.
As for me, the most comely gal in the film was Amara Karan, who plays a hostess on the train. She and Schwartzman hook up. Lucky dude.
Anyhow, I’m not sure that there are any new and incisive truths revealed here, but the movie is just edgy enough to take it out of the mainstream. That’s a good thing.
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I also enjoyed the French farce about Moliere, the greatest of the French farceurs. At least what I saw of “Moliere.”
I had to leave halfway through to meet the guy who was going to fix our leaky gutters.
Which proves that real life is rarely like the movies. Which is kind of where I started with all this.
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