Rating: A-

The minus comes from the genre. I just don’t think I can ever give a romance/romatic comedy an A for a few reasons. They’re highly predictable (Dan in Real Life is no exception). They come out of the same mold: Two people unexpectedly bump into eachother, stuff happens throughout the movie to make it seem impossible they could be together, and finally, they get together.

That said, Dan in Real Life is the best romantic comedy I’ve ever seen (my wife loves them, so I’ve seen a lot). And it wasn’t Steve Carrell/Micheal Scott carrying the movie on his shoulders. This is another masterpiece from Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Glibert Grape, About a Boy). The famous French actress Juliette Binoche (Chocolat, The English Patient) plays Marie, the ‘almost perfect’ love interest.

I won’t give any spoilers, but my favorite parts are the “pig face” song, and the line, “You murdered love.” I don’t think there was 10 minutes without a big laugh, and at least 5 scenes that made me laugh so hard it was painful. It’s very family friendly, no raunchy language or sexual scenes. It makes a reference to masturbation, but so did Transformers. It definitely gets an A+ for this particular genre, but overall an A-.