The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 - 5A
Letting go of
music control
Yeesh.
Real? Uh huh
Steve Carell can't save insincere movie
By BLAKE GOBLE in Real Life" is a dishonest dram-
DailyArts Writer edy that fails on this basic level.
Set amid a family reunion in
That title is a huge misnomer. Rhode Island, the film features
Dan does not live in real life. the exploits of Dan Burns (the
Maybe his resembles a real life, immensely affable Steve Carell).
but it's not. He's a widower, Before the gathering, Dan runs
father of three into an attractive woman named
daughters, Marie (Juliette Binoche, "Choc-
hopelessly olat") and becomes completely
in love with infatuated with her. The prob-
his brothe's Dan in lem is that Marie is already dat-
girlfriend and Real Life ing Dan's brother Mitch (Dane
a success- Cook, "Good Luck Chuck"). Oh,
ful columnist At Quality 16 the rapture.
steeped - with and Showcase What follows is an extended
upper-middle- Touchstone series of "quirky" contrivances
class struggles worthy of a mediocre sitcom.
of dealing The family is just too cute and
with family. You know, he's just sappy. The guys play against the
another guy dealing with "real girls in family crossword chal-
life." lenges. The family finds mean-
Right. Few will relate to Dan ing during their talent show. All
r and his faux travails, and "Dan arguments end with a healthy
chat with Mom, Dad and every
other family member. Every-
body is keen on aerobics, crafts
and other silly and meaningless
events. It's "The Family Stone,"
only worse.
By adding such unbelievable
and insincere filler, the film-
makers rely too heavily on void
minutiae. When Dan first meets
Marie and they bond over coffee,
a muffin and talk about popular
books, it's not poignant. It's cof-
fee, muffins and books. Nothing
more.
There are some warmer
moments. Dan's interactions
with his middle daughter are
surprisingly touching. At one
point, his daughter (Brittany
Robertson, "CSI") sneaks a boy
out to the cabin for some neck-
ing, just to be discovered by
Dan. They fight, and in the pro-
cess, Dan indirectly reveals his
feelings for Marie while citing
examples on the difficulty of
love. The daughter smiles and
replies, "So he can stay?"
Little, understated moments
like these keep the filmbearable.
But a few pleasant moments in
an otherwise soapy film do not
a good movie make.
The true letdown of "Dan
in Real Life" is Carell himself.
The beloved lead from "The
40-Year-Old Virgin" can now
say he's having something of
an off year with this and "Evan
Almighty." Exuding a kind of
insecure charm, Carell can usu-
ally take almost any scene and
make you want to watch it. At
first, Dan makes you feel that
way. But by the end of "Dan in
Real Life," you won't care about
his life at all.
Any owner of an mp3
player can recreate
that ubiquitous movie
moment: where the protagonist
walks confidently down a bustling
street, the activity of strangers
somehow fall- -
ing in line with
the rhythm of
his step. The
cinematic con-
clusion - that
the protagonist
has his place ABIGAIL B.
in the world A
- is brought COLODNER
up a notch by the
thrumming soundtrack, which
elevates his personal story to a
larger truth. The world is in fact
in sync with him.
In its power and ambiance,
music is an effusive medium.
Movies have soundtracks because
they help convince viewers that
the world of the movie is all of a
harmonious piece. It's no wonder
we try to imitate this effect in
daily life. When deployed with
skill, a track or an etude adds
framing and color to any experi-
ence, much like the proverbial
rose-colored glasses.
Owners of products like the
iPod constantly have the option
to put on those glasses, or rather
those headphones. The end-
less retrievable music at their
fingertips lets them tweak their
perception of experiences that
are largely beyond their control
- for instance, hustling through
our detour-rife campus during
the 10 a.m. crush. What power
this device gives the individual to
create a sense of his place in the
world no matter where he finds
himself.
The obvious, slightly ridiculous
side of such a sense is that it's
an illusion. And thus that movie
moment has become a cliche, for
the protagonist's cocky sense
of ownership over the scene
(e.g., Mean Girls, when Lindsay
Lohan's character falls headfirst
into a trashcan). But all the same,
people are willing to pay for it.
It's not only Apple that's pay-
ing attention to the connection
between music and a sense that
a hostile world has been custom-
made for an individual. Ever walk
into a store and have the eerie
sensation that everything was
made for you - that it all looks
like something you could already
own?
When business owners can
convert the unfamiliar into
the homey, the foreign into the
"already mine," they've struck
gold. And what better tool to com-
plete the fantasy than music?
I had thought the word
"muzak" was simply slang
describing the sort of rehashed
versions of tunes you hear in
doctors' offices and such. This is
a common misconception. As I
learned from a 2006 New Yorker
article ("The Soundtrack of Your
Life," available on the magazine's
site archive), Muzak is a power-
ful, relevant company that custom
designs streams of music for client
businesses.
The artistic insight behind
Muzak is how precisely music,
to the modern ear, lends a sense
of identity. Muzak works with a
store orbusiness to determine
exactly what audio experience
- down to the lag time between
tracks - best tunes its audience to
its goals.
That movie protagonist's/
plugged-in pedestrian's cocky
sense of ownership isnexactly the
mood Muzak wants shoppers
to be in. If the right soundtrack
seems to align the external world
with an individual agenda, the
hands of savvy marketers can turn
around and create an individual
agenda - a profitable one. Con-
sumers experiencing Muzac will
ideally feel not only comfortable
in the store, but like the master
of it, and entitled to the world it
offers.
Cold-hearted as the process
sounds, I really can't fault Muzak
for tapping into this phenomenon.
In a brief visit to New York City
this summer, one eveningI found
myself lured into a store every
few steps I took down a secre-
tive downtown street, where the
buildings are low and close and
the traffic is mostly pedestrian. I
was alone, amusing myself, look-
ing less for worthy purchases than
for diversion. The sense of ano-
nymity I felt from such quietness
and solitude was artfully trans-
formed each time I stepped over a
store's threshold.
The stores were self-contained
universes, each sensory level a
Should we just
let the music
take over?
branded one: smell, taste, look,
feel, sound. Each level cradled and
supported the others ina com-
prehensive aesthetic. New York
is famous for the way design gov-
erns its public spaces, and these
low-profile stores were accord-
ingly articulate. As a consumer
you were not only buying a quiche
- you were renting a life.
The New Yorker article
described the way the music ele-
ment can signal what experience
awaits consumers: "Abusiness's
background music is like an aural
pheromone. It attracts some cus-
tomers and repels others, and it
gives pedestrians walkingpast
the front door an immediate
clue about whether theybelong
inside."
With no agenda and no compa-
ny, I had no reservations, and each
establishment seemed to envelop
me comfortably, for a time. In
this they resembled nothing more
than noise-canceling headphones.
In my luck - or my paucity,
depending on your view - I had
no headphones and no soundtrack
in the haphazard, miraculous
openness of the street. It's a city I
have no personal governance over,
and I'm not sure I'd want any illu-
sion of an alternative.
- Colodner's soundtrack is
comprised of free jazz, John Cage
and "Alvin and the Chipmunks." E-
mail her at abigabor@mich.edu.
No redemption for Sebold's 'Moon'
By MAUREEN SULLIVAN
Daily Arts Writer
Admits Helen, the reprehensi-
ble heroine of Alice Sebold's "The'
Almost Moon," just 22 pages
into the novel: "Finally, after all
these years, my
mother's life was The Almost
snuffed out and
I had been the Moon: A
one to do it - in Novel
the same way I
might snuff out Alice Sebold
the guttering Little, Brown
wick of an all but
extinguished
candle. Within a few minutes, as
she struggled for breath, my life-
long dream had come true."
The crime is committed
within the first chapter, with no
gruesome detail spared. Helen
enters the home of her dementia-
struck 88-year-old mother, Clair,
to check on her as she regularly
does. Like a spoiled child, Clair
is cranky and unappreciative.
Helen, exhausted and bitter after
years of taking care of Clair, is
completely broken when she soils
herself. Helen's resentment is
evident as she refers to her moth-
er as a "passed out bag of bones
who reeked of shit." A moment
later, some twig of sanity snaps
in Helen. Poised to clean up the
mess, she takes a towel, and with
a strange calmness, suffocates
her mother.
From there, Helen floats in and
out of the past, recalling recent
memories of her own family life
intertwined with her mentally
troubled mother as bathes and
cleans Clair's dead body with
bizarre, compulsive fascination.
During the cleaning process,
Helen minimizes her actions,
insisting she was saving her
mother. Any credibility Helen
had is crushed when she calls her
husband, Jake, to tell him what life continues to spiral out of con-
happened. trol when she realizes it's impos-
"'She's lying here right in front sible to cover up her crime.
of me on the floor. I broke her While Sebold attempts to
nose.' draw readers into Helen's plight,
'You hit her?' I could tell I was her efforts are in vain. Helen is
selfish and narcissistic, practi-
cally devoid of any real emotion.
Though we get glimpses into her
'The Lovely past, her character is simply not
developed enough to explain her
Bones' author crime.
1 1 1 1Her childhood memories
ends her book- seem whiny. Her actions are
ridiculous and illogical. It's as
C yif Sebold is the only person who
doesn't realize Helen is com-
pletely insane.
The book-group conglomerate
shocking him. It made me feel of Sebold followers is likely tobe
good." - disappointed - even disturbed
This nihilistic admission is - by this follow-up to bestselling
horrifying. No matter the details "The Lovely Bones." The pages of
that unravel, Helen's actions are "The Almost Moon" turn quickly
hard, if not impossible, to excuse. in search of Helen's redemption,
As she loses grip with reality, her but it never arrives.
WHAT YOU GOT?
E-mail klein@michigandaily.com for an Arts application.
Pre-lecture screening of The Illusionist
a film adapted from a short story by Steven Millhauser
1pm in the Michigan Union Ballroom
Lecture: "The Fascination of the Miniature"
5pm in the Rackham Amphitheater
Both events are Free and Open to the Public
I"O StudentUniverse.com I
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