Dan in Real LifeMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Dan in Real Life."
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Metascore®65 out of 100 | Generally favorable reviews

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    A nimble and supple and moving comedy. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Joe Leydon

    Deftly interlaces heart and humor in a witty, warm and well-observed comedy about the unexpected and inconvenient blooming of romance at the weekend gathering of an extended family. Read full review

  • 80
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    Dan offers the most pleasing kind of unforced charm as it uses a terrific plot device to examine the conflicts between family and romance as well as the joy and pain of being in love. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    If the film has a flaw, and I'm afraid it does, it's the Sondre Lerche songs on the soundtrack. They are too foregrounded and literal, either commenting on the action or expounding on associated topics. In such a laid-back movie, they're in our face. Read full review

  • 75
    The Onion (A.V. Club) | Keith Phipps

    Novelist-turned-writer/director Peter Hedges follows up his "Pieces Of April" debut with a comedy that's at once overstuffed and surprisingly subtle. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    Dan in Real Life is neither wildly farcical nor mockingly cruel, but rather, for the most part, winningly gentle and observant. Read full review

  • 70
    Time | Richard Corliss

    In a brief review in Time magazine this week, I gave Dan a gentleman's B-. Let me try to remember why. Because the pressure of keeping his ardor secret turns Dan pleasingly cranky. Read full review

  • 60
    Village Voice | Robert Wilonsky

    Dan in Real Life steals from that line in "Virgin" about Carell kinda looking like Luke Wilson, since here Carell is, after all, playing the Luke Wilson role from "The Family Stone." Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Dan in Real Life takes a pleasant premise and calls upon the talents of engaging actors and generally squanders both. Read full review

  • 50
    ReelViews | James Berardinelli

    Beneath its aw-shucks, wants-to-be-liked exterior, this is a bankrupt motion picture. It's cloying, artificial, and not the least bit romantic. Read full review

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