Double Feature

February 2009 - As long as there are lonely people looking for love, there will be people to make movies about them. Here's a look at two such films. Consider it my valentine to you, dear reader.

In 2007's Dan in Real Life, real life gets messy for Steve Carell when he unknowingly falls for his brother's girlfriend. Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook, Dianne Wiest and John Mahoney co-star in this PG-13 rated movie.

Carell plays Dan, a newspaper advice columnist in New Jersey. He's also a widower raising three daughters. They set off for an annual family gathering at the family's vacation home in New England. One morning, Dan heads to the local bookstore where he meets Marie (Binoche). When Dan gets back to the house, he meets Marie again and is stunned to learn that she's dating his younger, less mature brother (Cook). The rest of the movie follows Dan as he struggles to find a balance between his own feelings for Marie and his feelings for his family.

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. I give this movie a marginal recommendation based on the performance by Steve Carell. He plays Dan with a vulnerability and a likeability that makes you root for him. My main problem is that Dan is about the only fully-drawn character in the movie. We don't know much about the other characters except for their names. Even Marie is lacking background. We know that she is well-read and a world traveler, but how she got that way is never explained. We want Dan to end up with her but only because we want Dan to be happy. I'd be OK if Marie ended up with someone else as long as there was someone else for Dan, too.

Casey Affleck manages to find love despite rarely cracking a smile in Lonesome Jim, a 2005 R-rated comedy directed by Steve Buscemi. Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place and Seymour Cassel also star.

Affleck plays Jim, a 20-something aspiring writer who goes back home to Indiana after a stint as a dog walker in New York City. He moves in with his parents (Place and Cassel) and his older brother, Tim, a divorced dad. Soon, he meets Anika (Tyler), a nurse who's mom to a young son.

Jim is so full of doom and gloom that he all but incites his older brother into a suicide attempt. Then, when his mother is wrongly arrested and the family business temporarily closes, he does nothing to help the situation even though he has crucial information. Strangely, Anika does not run as fast as she can in the other direction.

Overall review: Liked it. Lonesome Jim gets my recommendation based on the fact that it's quirky and humorous and human. Besides, I still remember Seymour Cassel from his role in the under-appreciated TV show Under Suspicion. And, Place is good as the mom who covers up big disappointments in her own life by killing everyone else with kindness.