Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

This Movie Is About: finding love. But for someone like Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling), it's almost impossible. It's not because he doesn't want love but because he is probably the shiest person you know. He spends his days in his house looking out into the snowy world around him and even at work he turns down all social interactions. That is until one day when his co-worker shows him a site where you can customize a real life sized doll for yourself. He gets one to combat his loneliness and it seems like a normal thing to do until he gets it and to the shock of his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer), Lars completely thinks the girl's real and her name is Bianca. Gus and Emily take Lars to Doctor Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) to get Bianca checked out. Of course this is just a chance for the Doctor to give Lars a good examination. Upon inspection, the Doctor has deemed Lars completely healthy and that they will just have to accept Bianca as a manifestation of a psychological problem that will disappear once Lars finds what he's looking for, whatever that is.

You Should Watch This Movie: based on the concept alone. Just the fact that this movie presents a grown man living with a doll and thinking that she's completely real is instant comedy. But this film isn't really a comedy although it is pretty funny. This movie deals with loneliness and abandonment. These issues are common within everyone as we all fear being left alone with no one to love and no one that loves us. It's a very scary feeling and having that being the theme and pretty much the antagonist of the film, gives it that nice dramatic overtone that gives a very funny situation a lot of heart and makes it memorable.

What's Hot: I really enjoyed the setting of the film which is funny because it's in the middle of winter with snow all around. It's used as a nice metaphor for Lar's perception of the world as his entire social life is frozen because of a dark past which I will not spoil. The weather wanes with his emotion changes and it's just a nice detail that adds to the deep character of Lars. The subtext doesnt' stop there though as everyone in this film has their own way of dealing with lonliness and wanting to love someone. Everyone has problems in this film and Lars is the only person that does anything about it and because he brought Bianca into the community, everyone rallies around her to make Lars feel at home and at the same time, connects with everyone else in the community. There is a very touching moment in the end that really sums up the theme of the film which is no one is really alone and there will always be people who care about you. And Ryan Gosling is amazing which should be expected but I just thought I should throw that in there.

What's Not Hot: This movie has pretty poor marketing which is something that I really don't get. It's a character study film but at the same time it's marketed as a comedy. It's funny, don't get me wrong but it's not that funny. Mostly because it's so slow paced and it's just not that funny looking at a guy who's so messed up deal with life in a way that's not normal by our standards. There are golden moments of comedy but anyone going in here expecting anything other than a slow paced drama will be disappointed.

Last Comments: Lars and the Real Girl, although a very clever and deep film, will not be very entertaining for most people. I know this might upset a few people who have seen this movie because it is funny at moments, but there really isn't enough comedy in here to warrant it as a comedy. As a result, this falls into the light drama range and there really isn't all that much drama to begin with. That's because there is no real opposition to what Lars wants. It's just an internal battle between Lars and his past with Gus being sort of in there but in the end he's a really nice guy as well. There were plenty of chances for the community or at least parts of the community to turn on Lars and say this doll is ridiculous and maybe even try to destroy it but nothing like that happened. The town was just all very nice which made me more frustrated at Lars for not getting over his shit more than sympathizing with him. That's just my opinion about a minor part of an overall very emotional and clever film that deserves watching.

Breaking It Down:
Story:7.0 (Nancy Oliver)
Direction: 7.8 (Craig Gillespie)
Acting: 9.0
Cinematograhy: 7.5
Music/Sound: 5.5

Entertainment Value: 7.2 (not an average)