In the movies, family reunions always take place in a big, old house. There are always too many kids, too many generations, lots of invasions of personal space.
Meals can be embarrassing free-for-alls or awkward moments of confession.
At some point, a game of touch football turns ugly.
There’s at least one contest, men against women. Doing The New York Times crossword puzzle as teams would be a fair way to settle that.
And if you’re really corny, maybe you squeeze in a family talent show.
‘Twas always thus, from the Stone Age to “The Family Stone.” And yet, somehow, every one of those clichés pays off in “Dan in Real Life,” this fall’s “Home for the Holidays” et al, a movie about one of those family gettogethers that happen only in a theater.
It stars Steve Carell as a mopey widowed father of three girls, author of a common-sense newspaper column, “Dan in Real Life.” It was directed and co-written by Peter Hedges, whose heartfelt “Pieces of April,” “About a Boy” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” tip us that however familiar this is, the sweetness will shine through.
Dan hasn’t done much dating since his wife died. He’s a bit overprotective of the other girls in his life. He won’t let Jan (Alison Pill) drive, even though she has her license. He does his best to keep hormonal 15-year-old Cara (Brittany Robertson, hysterical) in check. And what parenting he has left is simply tolerated by his angelic fourth-grader, Lily (Marlene Lawston).
They go to his family’s annual “close the beach house for the winter” get-together in New England, and that’s where we learn how worried his folks — Dianne Weist and John Mahoney — and siblings (Dane Cook among them) are about him.
Enter Marie. Played at a dizzy pitch by Juliette Binoche, an actress not known for goofy, she is a wordly, free-spirited delight.
They “meet cute” in an old bookstore. She mistakes him for an employee, he offers her reading material to help her cope. They have coffee, and he blurts out his life and still gets her number.
And then he goes back to the family, ready to tell them that lightning has finally struck. Except she’s the woman that brother Mitch (Cook) has brought to this get-together.
Whoopsie.
A too-funny, too-sexy Emily Blunt (“Jane Austen Book Club”) shows up as a blind date for Dan. There are confrontations over the grief Dan still carries, and the boy Cara is determined to get carried away with. Marie grows more alluring and more stricken at their chemistry by the minute.
The dialogue features a few zingers, some from Cara.
“You don’t even understand that you don’t understand.”
The rest of the movie is Dan trying to do what any lovesick man, or thinking, caring moviegoer would do — keep Juliette Binoche from the clutches of Dane Cook. Their little connection is a secret. That means that Dan and Marie have to keep their hearts in check, their jealousies, too. And in a crowded house, that’s not easy.
“Dan In Real Life” PG-13 for some innuendo. 1 hour, 35 minutes. Directed by Peter Hedges; written by Pierce Gardner and Peter Hedges; photography by Lawrence Sher; starring Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Dianne Wiest, Emily Blunt and John Mahoney. Opens today at area theaters.
