UmNah

Even though it was directed by Peter Hedges, the guy who wrote “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and “About a Boy” (two phenomenally poignant flicks), I couldn’t help thinking “Dan in Real Life” would be 100 percent cheese whiz (despite the Metacritic score of 65).

This preconception, I guess, came mostly from the movie’s vapid trailer, which makes way too much of one of the weakest jokes (Steve Carrell gets another traffic ticket and tells the officer to  “put it on my tab”) and sappy looking scenes of Carrell as a widower taking care of three kids. Oh, and worst of all, Dane Cook. Gag me with a spoon.

With these lower than low expectations, I entered the theater and was promptly blown away. The movie is better than the aforementioned Hedges movies, mostly due to Carrell. After ducking out of his Rhode Island family reunion he falls hard and fast for a girl he meets at a local bookstore (Juliet Binoche), only to learn she’s the girlfriend of … Dane Cook. Watching Carrell go through the rest of the week agonizingly trying to keep his infatuation with Binoche on the DL was hilarious, and something that I could easily identify with. My kind of chick flick.

Here’s one of my favorite scenes (the one about Ruthie “pigface” Draper):