Unlike other Carell comedies, Dan in Real Life doesn't go for the big laughs that you might be expecting, although there are certainly enough choice ones to have many smiling throughout, and
enough emotional elements to have some eyes mist up from time to time.
Gudegast, making his feature directing debut after writing «A Man Apart» and «London Has Fallen,» seems to understand just
enough about that
element of Mann's film to recreate some of its conflicts — both in terms of crime scenarios and the characters» civilian lives — but lacks the discipline, or maybe skill, to lend them real
emotional weight, much less originality.