★★½ Dan In Real Life

[Twinkletoes: 2.5]

Twinkletoes says: 'Steve Carrell gives what I thought was a fantastic performance in this otherwise unremarkable film. It is about a sad widower with 3 daughters and their week at their family's annual reunion. To be sure there were some nice moments here but I found a lot of things to be too distracting and annoying to forgive: 1. This is the kind of family that gets together once a year at a New England log cabin without a TV to spend a week putting on family talent shows, playing hide & seek and doing arts and crafts. Excuse me while I go take some insulin. 2. I have never ever gotten what anyone sees in Juliette Binoche and as an object of infatuation in this film, she is sorely miscast. 3. That whole scene in the bookstore is just so poorly written and awkward. The whole thing feels like a lost opportunity to create something really good.'