![]() That's why the movie's so soothingly pleasant. His plot this time is less fraught, maybe because enormous stakes are not involved Mitch and Marie are not desperately in love Dan and Marie hardly know each other, and social awkwardness is the most difficult hurdle between here and happiness. The movie's director and co-writer, Peter Hedges, made the overlooked little treasure "Pieces Of April," a 2003 Sundance hit, also about a Thanksgiving family reunion (which, oddly enough, also involved a family named Burns). ![]() Binoche is superb at looking upon her new man with the regret she'd feel for a puppy she can't adopt. Good thing it's big enough for lots of secret conversations on the move the fact that social rules forbid them to declare their growing love make Marie and Dan feel all the more like blurting it out. That's the setup, and the movie deals with how to fit all those conflicting emotions into the house. That evening, brother Mitch brings his girlfriend home and, yes, it's Marie. It's not love at first sight, but it's intrigue, approval and yearning. They begin one of those conversations that threatens to continue for a lifetime. Also on hand is Dan's brother Mitch ( Dane Cook).ĭan goes into town in the afternoon and runs into Marie ( Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore. Since Mahoney's big job is wearing an apron in the kitchen, it's hard to see him as a guy owning that kind of real estate. At Thanksgiving, he takes them all to Rhode Island, where his parents ( John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest) own a vast, rambling brown-shingled beach house you probably couldn't touch for $20 million. He's raising three girls on his own, two teenagers and a pre-teen, and he must be doing a good job because they treat him like a slightly slow brother. Getting there was all the fun.He plays Dan Burns, a newspaper advice columnist, whose wife died four years before. It feels labored and unconvincing in its attempt to wrap up a convoluted situation that the Greeks would have handled with a god descending from the heavens to sort it all out. There also is a priceless drop-by appearance by beauteous Emily Blunt, who is becoming the queen of comic supporting roles. Eye contact and tugs at the mouth from Carell and Binoche do the trick very nicely, while the animated clan provides an engaging backdrop of familial love, thwarted though intense feelings - that would be Cara - longings for recognition - that would be Jane - and wounded behavior by the entire group once they realize Dan’s deception. What Hedges does here so brilliantly is allow us to see two people fall madly in love in a situation where no one else can be aware of their passion. This predicament sets up any number of comically awkward situations in a huge, multibedroom seaside house belonging to Mom and Dad (veterans John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest, who cagily play things straight). The sequence plays a little too meet cute but nonetheless features charming acting by Carell and Binoche. He falls head over heels for Marie (Binoche) without realizing that she is his brother’s new girlfriend. ![]() Longtime playboy brother Mitch (stand-up comic Dane Cook) means to introduce his family to his new squeeze, but before he can do so Dan unwittingly makes her acquaintance in a bookstore. So he brings to this gathering mostly cranky daughters: Jane (Alison Pill), who wants to use her new driver’s license and to be treated like an adult Cara (Brittany Robertson), who believes she is the first person in the world to discover love and 8-year-old Lilly (Marlene Lawston), who is smarter than Dan can possibly realize. He is a widowed father of three girls, two of which are teens, meaning Dad is the last person you would go to for advice. Here he brings together a large, boisterous family for an annual fall weekend in Rhode Island.ĭan (Carell) writes a family-advice column, Dan in Real Life. He also likes to deploy multiple stories that give you a big, chaotic mess within which smaller, intimate moments of tenderness or romance can exist. Hedges’ focus, at least up to this point, is the family. 'The Zone of Interest' DP Lukasz Zal on Depicting Evil Without the Emotional Manipulation
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