Blu-ray Review: Dan In Real Life

THE MOVIE: 3 stars out of 5

Dan in Real Life stars Steve Carell as a newspaper advice columnist and widowed father of three daughters who sets out on a vacation with the rest of his extended family at his parents’ summer home in New England. While with the rest of his family, he meets a woman and immediately falls in love with her only to learn that she is the girlfriend of one of his brothers and will also be staying with the family at his parent’s summer home. Needless to say, this is a cause of some friction and trouble and effects his relationship not only with his brother but his daughters as well. While this film has some charming moments to be sure, it has a tendency to drag and is too predictable. Part of the problem is with Steve Carell, who, IMHO, is just not likable enough to be convincing in this type of role. He has joined Ben Stiller and Will Farrell on my list of most annoying actors. While he is not up to the level of the other two aforementioned gentlemen, he is rapidly closing in on them. I would rent this one as a rental only.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

Dan in Real Life is encoded with AVC and presented with an aspect ratio of 1:85:1. On the whole, this is a very good looking transfer. Colors are bright and bold although a bit oversaturated for my tastes. The film’s overall color pallet is skewed to the color orange. Skin tones in particular look very orange and not natural at all. As I did not see this film in the theaters, I can only presume that this is the intent of the director and not the fault of the encode. This orange tilt to the color scheme also negatively effects the color green which looks a bit garish here at times also. On the plus side, black levels are excellent as is detail, which is very good throughout the film in both bright and dark scenes. The transfer presents a clear three dimensional image although not up to the level of the best looking transfers I have seen. The clarity of the image here falls a tad short of the looking through the window effect of the best encodes out there As one would expect with such a new film, the print is in excellent shape with no obvious blemishes that I could detect. Other than the skewed color balance, this is a very pleasing looking film.

THE AUDIO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

Dan in Real Life is supplied with an uncompressed PCM track at 48 kHz/24 bit. As one would expect with a romantic comedy, the film is very front heavy in terms of the sound field. In fact, very little use is made of the surround channels at all, with almost all of the sound coming solely from the front three channels. While there is little here in the way of an immersive sound, what is presented is presented with high fidelity. Dialogue is clear and crisp with the right amount of heft and fullness and well localized in the mix. The overall sound of the film is smooth and open with not even a hint of shrillness. On the plus side is the reproduction of the film’s music which, although presented in the front three channels only, sounds wonderful. From the sound of the acoustic guitars to the bass and drums, the music here is presented with excellent fidelity and was a real joy to listen to. While I would have preferred a more active sound mix, the audio presented on this disc is presented well enough to earn a solid 4 1/3 star rating.

IN CONCLUSION

While Dan in Real Life is at times a charming romantic comedy, it suffers from pacing problems and predictability that keeps me from recommending that you purchase this release. However, it is a solid rental and one that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

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