YMMV / Dan in Real Life

• Heartwarming Moments: Dan and Marie get together and there's a lovely wedding! Dan allows Cara and Marty to date after all! Even Mitch finds someone! Happiness all around.
• Retroactive Recognition: This was the very first film for Lucas Hedges, who portrayed a minor character who becomes Lilly's dance partner.
• He Really Can Act: One of the film's biggest praises has been just how genuine the familial atmosphere between all of the main characters is, largely thanks to the cast living together for several weeks in the house where the movie was filmed in preparation. This is notably the only acting role Dane Cook has received any positive feedback for.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The computers and cell phones are clearly from the mid 2000s and the characters never use text messaging which wouldn't become more common until later in the decade. But most tellingly is that Marie, who is no older than her early 40s, once traveled to Berlin "when there was still a wall."
• The Woobie:
  • Dan. He has to stay in the "special room" (the noisy and cramped laundry room) where he can't get any sleep, he has to do the dishes to make up for his behavior during dinner, he has to carry everyone's life jackets when the family prepares to go canoeing... and those are just the physical sufferings.
  • Mitch gets this when Marie breaks up with him. What could be more humiliating than having the woman you love break up with you while your entire family watches from the kitchen window? How about when right after this you and your entire family go bowling together where you all see your now ex-girlfriend in the arms of your own brother!

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