'Dan in Real Life' is a love-triangle romance that plays out among Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook during a family reunion, "Dan in Real Life" is a surprisingly plain, sappy, even insipid comedy, considering the filmmaker behind it.

After years as a novelist and screenwriter, director and co-writer Peter Hedges made a wonderful film debut with another family-reunion tale, 2003's indie charmer "Pieces of April."

That film chronicled the icy history of a black-sheep daughter trying to make amends with her unforgiving clan over Thanksgiving. Those people were truly messed up and beset by adversity, yet they were utterly endearing and genuine.

The gang in "Dan in Real Life," which Hedges worked up from an original screenplay by Pierce Gardner (the woeful horror thriller "Lost Souls"), are fairly well-balanced and warmly affectionate among one another. And they are boring to the point of aggravation.

Throw in a heavy dose of sitcom artifice and gooey melodrama, and "Dan in Real Life" becomes toilsome.

“Dan in Real Life” soundtrack enhances and elevates the movie, giving it a singular quality lacking in most romantic comedies.