Rhonda Dunaway
11-13-2007, 09:34 AM
I saw Lars and The Real Girl on Sunday afternoon, and I'm still laughing. Ryan Gosling plays the starring roll in the movie, Lars. You might remember Ryan from The Notebook or Half Nelson. In his latest movie, he plays a young man in his 20's who finds it painfully difficult to connect with other people, even his own family members. Over the course of the movie, you hear other characters talk about what happened to Lars in his childhood, so you begin to understand why he isolates himself by refusing to date and refusing to spend time with friends and family.
Lars finds a solution to his problem, though, when a co-worker introduces Lars to a website that sells anatomically correct artificial women - some people might call them "sex dolls." Now, I know what some of you must be thinking at this point, but pull your mind out of the gutter because that's not where the movie goes. Lars does indeed purchase one of the dolls, but what happens next is that he names her "Bianca," develops a personality for her, treats her with extreme warmth, gentleness, and care as if she is his real girlfriend, and then starts taking her around town to meet family, friends, coworkers, fellow church members, etc. A family physician who is also a psychologist explains to Lars' family that as a coping mechanism to help him come to terms with what happened during his childhood, Lars has developed a delusion - namely that Bianca is a real girfriend. The doctor asks Lars' family to go along with the delusion until such time as Lars can begin to work things out on his own. Lars' family members, as you can imagine, are quite upset and reluctant to go along with the delusion, but because they love Lars and long for him to get better, they do so. Even more surprisingly, when everyone else in town finds out about the situation, they go along with it too. This makes for a lot of hilarious moments, but the film is very emotional, also. It was so heartwarming to see how much everyone loved Lars and the lengths to which they were willing to go to help him. It was very painful, but also a relief to watch Lars come to terms with his past and to watch him to begin to release his delusion.
This movie is a real original; there is absolutely nothing like it. The story is clever, hilarious, and touching all at the same time. The actors, especially, Gosling are tremendous. Watching the facial expressions of the actors and hearing their responses as they met Bianca or watched Lars and Bianca interact made me laugh so hard I was spitting out my pop.
If you like quirky, off-beat films, go see it. You'll love it. I'ts currently playing at the Oakview AMC Theatre, and it's been there awhile, so it may not be there that much longer.
Lars finds a solution to his problem, though, when a co-worker introduces Lars to a website that sells anatomically correct artificial women - some people might call them "sex dolls." Now, I know what some of you must be thinking at this point, but pull your mind out of the gutter because that's not where the movie goes. Lars does indeed purchase one of the dolls, but what happens next is that he names her "Bianca," develops a personality for her, treats her with extreme warmth, gentleness, and care as if she is his real girlfriend, and then starts taking her around town to meet family, friends, coworkers, fellow church members, etc. A family physician who is also a psychologist explains to Lars' family that as a coping mechanism to help him come to terms with what happened during his childhood, Lars has developed a delusion - namely that Bianca is a real girfriend. The doctor asks Lars' family to go along with the delusion until such time as Lars can begin to work things out on his own. Lars' family members, as you can imagine, are quite upset and reluctant to go along with the delusion, but because they love Lars and long for him to get better, they do so. Even more surprisingly, when everyone else in town finds out about the situation, they go along with it too. This makes for a lot of hilarious moments, but the film is very emotional, also. It was so heartwarming to see how much everyone loved Lars and the lengths to which they were willing to go to help him. It was very painful, but also a relief to watch Lars come to terms with his past and to watch him to begin to release his delusion.
This movie is a real original; there is absolutely nothing like it. The story is clever, hilarious, and touching all at the same time. The actors, especially, Gosling are tremendous. Watching the facial expressions of the actors and hearing their responses as they met Bianca or watched Lars and Bianca interact made me laugh so hard I was spitting out my pop.
If you like quirky, off-beat films, go see it. You'll love it. I'ts currently playing at the Oakview AMC Theatre, and it's been there awhile, so it may not be there that much longer.