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Dan in Real Life, Dane Cook, good writing

March 30th, 2008 | Arts, Film | Comment »

Just watched Dan in Real Life. Loved it. I was banging the desk laughing out loud – howling, actually – through most of it.

A few things struck me, though:

This was a very constructed, commercial movie. I could feel myself being manipulated as I was watching it. I think the times I noticed it most was when completely unrealistic things were happening. Dan getting in the shower. Dan tackling Marie. Dan’s outburst at dinner. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy these moments. They were great. But they made me feel as if I was watching a movie, not looking through a secret window into someone’s life. It was maybe a little like Juno in this regard, but a lot more blatant than Juno ever was. I wonder if this could help explain why Juno did so well at the boxoffice and Dan in Real Life did so poorly. The directing, too, wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been given the cast involved. That scene where they first meet is one particularly obvious example of uninspired directing.
Dane Cook cannot act and dragged the movie down.
The subtext, I guess, in the writing seemed too obvious. Nothing was subtle. It was painted in big bright letters on the screen. I dunno. I worry about this with my short, too, with people pushing me to make the jokes obvious and accessible. I increasingly have a desire to create my own work without consulting others, just so I can present them in their unadulterated form. I guess I have to use that loosely, since Nathan will nail me for adulterating my own work. Still. The concept is sound.

Final note: My brother just asked me how the movie was and my quick (honest) reaction was, “it was awesome.”