Read More @HJ Reviews: Family Values for the Real World Darrel Manson Family is Good, God's Family Best Yo Snyder Testing the Depths of Love Tom Price It's Nice To Have Family Yo Previews: Pro-Family & Family Friendly, By Design Greg Wright

Something's happening to Dan. It's confusing. It's awkward. It's family.
"Plan to be surprised."
-- Dan Burns, DAN IN REAL LIFE

A conflicted romance collides head-on into the perils of family relations with fun-filled results in Peter Hedges' fresh, clever and hilarious take on the slice-of-life comedy, DAN IN REAL LIFE. Comic sensation Steve Carell stars as an ordinary guy who accidentally stumbles out of his "play-it-safe" life into the exhilarating world of the unexpected when he falls in love on what was supposed to be a family getaway. Starring alongside standup star Dane Cook and Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche, Carell is about to discover a family weekend of chaos, confusion, awkwardness -- and ultimately, his entire family's extraordinary capacity for love in the face of left-field surprises.

It all begins with widowed father and family advice columnist Dan Burns (Carell), who is still reeling from the heartache of loss and takes refuge by trying to maintain order with his three rebellious young girls, while dodging anything unexpected or outside the box. But when Dan heads to Rhode Island, his miffed daughters in tow, for the annual Fall weekend thrown by the large and boisterous Burns family, everything changes. Soon after his arrival, he runs into an alluring woman named Marie (Binoche) in a bookshop. For the first time in a very, very long time, Dan experiences real, live sparks -- only to have to douse them liberally when he discovers Marie is, in fact, the brand new girlfriend his brother Mitch (Cook) is about to proudly introduce to the family.

As the weekend gets underway in the close quarters of a crowded house filled with quirky, prying relatives, Dan and Marie try to squelch and cover up their growing mutual attraction at every turn, leading to one comical situation after another. Yet, no matter how hard they try to do the very opposite, Dan and Marie can't help but fall in love. Now Dan is about to realize, that no matter how wise safety might seem, when it comes to real life, he's going to have to break all the rules.

All Clips below can be downloaded for iPod, QuickTime (mp4), and PowerPoint (mpg)

 
The real . . . is always checked with failure, imperfection, and even wrong. So instead of biting and devouring one another, let’s support individual freedom as we serve one another in love.
CHARLES R. SWINDOLL

 
Our opinion of others depends far more than we like to think on what we believe their opinion of us is.
SYDNEY J. HARRIS (1917–1986)

 
If you approach each new person in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884–1962)

 
There are areas in our lives where in our effort to be right we may go wrong:
    1. When in our determination to be bold we become brazen.
    2. When in our desire to be frank we become rude.
    3. When in our effort to be watchful we become suspicious.
    4. When we seek to be serious and become somber.
    5. When we mean to be conscientious and become overscrupulous.
A. W. TOZER (1897–1963)

 
There are some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out, and we find a music in our souls never felt before.
WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND (1854–1907)