Advice columnist Dan Burns is an expert on relationships, but somehow struggles to succeed as a brother, a son and a single parent to three precocious daughters. Things get even more complicated when Dan finds out that the woman he falls in love with is actually his brother's new girlfriend.
Acting
Steve Carell's face does 47 emotions in one breakfast scene.
Writing
Dialogue that actually sounds like siblings destroying each other.
Score
Sondre Lerche's acoustic melancholy perfects every longing glance.
Director
Peter Hedges
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Rhode Island house is real — director Peter Hedges wrote the screenplay specifically imagining his own family chaos there.
That shower scene where Dan finally breaks down? Steve Carell insisted on doing it in one take, and the crew genuinely didn't know if he was acting.
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Reactions from the web
Seriously underrated film. I'm probably only one of a handful of people who can say I saw it in a theater.
@RevWillTheThrill1974 32
I have seen that movie so many times!
@MaxBondarenko 6
Just put it on my tab has now become a constant inside family joke
@scobnoster3423 1
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