Carell tumbles for love in 'Real Life'

"Dan in Real Life" is the title of a newspaper advice column written by Steve Carell's character in his new romantic comedy. Dan Burns is respected (that is, for a journalist), a sensible ombudsman for his readers' romance and relationship problems. He's also a loving if overprotective single dad of three daughters, and he doles out look-before-you-leap advice to them as confidently as if they were the anonymous hordes who write him seeking his guidance. Naturally, this makes the girls a little bit nuts.

Dan, widowed four years earlier, takes his girls to a weekend gathering of the clan at his parents' sprawling Rhode Island beach house. At the local book and tackle shop (a nice touch), Dan meets Marie, a stylish charmer who takes him for a clerk and subjects him to a fidgety outburst of unresolved emotions. She needs his help finding a book that's funny, but not too broad, and touching, and sums up your feelings when you think you might be in love, but you're not sure. He picks a dozen volumes off the shelves at random and explains that she's looking for something between "Anna Karenina" and "Everybody Poops."

As cute, contrived meetings go, it's original and funny. The pair strike up a conversation and for the first time in the four years since his wife's death, Dan feels comfortable pouring out his feelings. They leave with a mutual feeling that they should meet again. They do, sooner than expected, back at the house where younger brother Mitch (Dane Cook) introduces her with undisguised pride as the love of his life.

Head over heels for his brother's new girlfriend, Mr. Know-It-All's common sense evaporates and he flirts, sulks and dissembles like a moonstruck teenager -- a teen, that is, who has memorized "Meet the Parents,"The Family Stone" and the last dozen or so family-based rom-coms. The story, set in a house full of colorful relatives, follows the contours of extended-family love stories slavishly. If you can't foresee the moment when Carell, making a rooftop getaway from an embarrassing situation, will tumble into the bushes, you shouldn't be out at the movies without an adult guardian.

Even so, Peter Hedges (able screenwriter of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "About a Boy," and director of "Pieces of April") handles the story with smooth technique. Despite some naïve and cloying scenes and obvious dramatic contrivances, it's a graceful, warm film. Hedges is sharp-eyed about the little irritations and warm traditions of big family get-togethers, and the way that traits like bossiness and resentment are passed through bloodlines. Dianne Wiest, as the matriarch, orders her adult children around so casually that you can see why her boy Dan took up telling people what to do as a career. The family plays touch football a lot, and those tackles must bruise sometimes.

The challenge of keeping his feelings under wraps is a comic situation tailor-made for Carell, who is best when he's trying to conceal emotion beneath a calm mask. His eyes convey boiling passions in the tiniest flickers even as his face stays blank. He's a master of minimalist acting. Binoche has a more expressive role; her hilarity when she and Carell wind up sharing a shower is infectious, and her jealousy on a double date when he puts the moves on another woman (the fetching Emily Blunt) practically sends plumes of steam out her ears. Whenever the script veers into trite territory, as when Dan's daughters play turnabout and teach him big lessons about love, the actors carry the day with their carefully observed performances. For all its by-the-numbers plotting, "Dan in Real Life" is winningly good-natured and funny.

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186

Colin Covertrating: Pg-13 For Some innuendo. • ccovert@startribune.com