Meet Dan, man of depression and instability. He’s a widower, a newspaper advice columnist, and a father of three daughters, who he lets walk all over him. Though this movie is called ‘Dan in Real Life’, real life doesn’t have a very big part. Full of holes and sad in a way that doesn’t reflect mood, this movie doesn’t really work.
For one thing, the characters are inconsistent. Even his three daughters, who act way too old for their age, have shape-shifting personalities. There is also very little character development, again, especially for his daughters. The oldest wants to drive, the middle is in ‘love’, and the youngest…well she doesn’t do much of anything. The fate of Dan’s deceased wife is explained in less than a sentence. How can you not expect an audience to connect with the characters when all we know about them is one arbitrary fact per person? A great move by the writers. The rest of Dan’s family is equally under-developed (for god’s sake, Dane Cook?), spouting meaningless words of advice and awkwardity, barely meeting the standards of supporting characters. The entire movie had an overriding depressing tone, doing very little to brighten things up. All in all, there’s not much to take away from this movie besides the deep idea that we should “plan to be surprised.” One could take away more meaning from a fortune cookie.
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