Lars, a sweet but quirky-to-delusional guy, has found the girl of his dreams?a life-sized doll named Bianca. Wen he develops feelings for Margo, an attractive co-worker, Lars finds himself lost in a hilariously unique love triangle.
Customer Reviews
Not what I expected - and that's a good thing!
I expected this movie to be another shock humor type of comedy (like American Pie or 40 Year-Old Virgin), especially considering that all I knew was that it was about a guy who orders an inflatable bride.
It turns out, though, the reason he gets the doll isn't because he's a pervert but because he suffers from acute social anxiety. The doll serves to midwife him back into society.
Despite the serious subject matter, the movie is still very funny; not in a raunchy way but rather more in a genuine, wholesome, guilt-free way. Also, the citizens of the town are incredibly redeeming and really make the audience feel good.
Surprisingly good movie. Highly recommend.
Lars and the Real Girl
This underrated film never hit a market because it is so different, but with Ryan Gosling one of the most promising young actors today, you can't go wrong (watch for Kelli Garner as the girl who is in love with him, she is an up and coming actress). He is very careful about choosing his roles that say something to the public in his films that Lars will have you laughing and crying at the same time; it is compassionate, about love, tolerance, understanding and very, very funny. It was nominated for best screenplay and really should have been nominated for Best Actor. Compare this to this Oscar nominated role of the year before (Half-Nelson) and you will wonder why the Academy didn't nominate for this film. You go Ryan!
Lars Scores with everyone
A lovely thought provoking movie that brings a plastic woman to life with skill, wit and craft.
Thoughtful comedy that leaves many impressions
Lars lives in one of the snowed-in Northern states; his town could be next to Lake Wobegone. He's painfully shy, in an utterly literal sense of the term - he won't even visit his brother and sister in law in the house adjacent to where he lives. Maybe it's no suprise that he orders a customized, anatomically detailed love doll.
The surprise is that it comes to life for him. Everyone else sees a slightly creepy adult toy, but he brings "Bianca" everywhere - to dinner with his brother and sister in law, to a Christmas party with his co-workers, even to church. He concocts an elaborate fantasy about why she says so little, why she needs a wheelchair, even why she needs to borrow clothing. A psychologist tries to address his delusion but, while it works itself out, recommends humoring him. And so, the entire community does. If they're going to treat her as real, they're going to do it right.
Therein lies the quirky charm of this movie - an entire town rallying around one of their own, playing their part in his odd drama. If that's what's best for him and there's no harm in it, they'll do it. A few balk, of course, but only a few and not for long. They accept Bianca fully into their community, sometimes to Lars's dismay.
The happy ending (happy enough) makes this into a movie about redemption, but that over-simplifies this complex film. The premise looks like some modern-day fairy tale. Once set in motion, the movie carries itself forward with understated kindness, maybe even nostalgia for a small-town closeness, whether that closeness ever existed or not.
All the Lonely People
(4.5 *'s) Lars Lindstrom has all the foibles one sometimes associates with a ventriloquist. Socially inept and insecure, every encounter with even loved ones is full of awkwardness and fumbling. He has difficulty expressing himself and relating to others. At home he lives in the mother-in-law house (or garage as they say) next to his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law Karen (Emily Mortimer). One night a well-meaning Karen tackles him on the driveway to get him to stay for dinner. Needless to say he is almost traumatized by her good intentions. Work is as pedestrian as it gets: He works in a cubicle doing work on the computer for an unknown company. Co-worker Marla (Kelli Gardner) shows an interest in him, but even her overtures leave him flummoxed. Another co-coworker is friendly, but offers him his favorite porn. That is until he introduces him to his latest offering from "Real Doll.dot.com". Anatomically correct, the life-size doll gives Lars an idea.
Coming home to dinner once again, Lars is beaming about his new girlfriend. Gus and Karen are also beaming, truly enthusiastic and proud. Until they meet Bianca, the "real doll" who is seated with a conversing Lars. Lars is transformed. His speech is confident; his cheeks are reddened; and his outlook is happy. First comes shock; then comes acceptance. Not quite knowing what to do, Lars is so believable that they start to believe it too. They have him see a therapist (Patricia Clarkson), the general practitioner in their small Northern Wisconsin town, and the pastor gathers his flock together. Everyone starts to make jokes, but eventually they go along with someone who is truly delusional. Bianca starts to become real.
Billed as a comedy, `Lars and the Real Girl' is too often sad to be funny. Though profound and heartwarming, the laughs are often embarrassing because the situations of the protagonist are awkward. They elicit our sympathy. This isn't to say the film isn't a gem because it is. In spite of all temptations to pigeon hole this movie as cheesy or a screwball comedy, all the right components come together to make `Lars and the Real Girl' a wonderful little film and truly one of the best of the year. Without serendipity, this movie could have easily been a disaster.
(The extras are short but sweet: "The Real Story of Lars and the Real Girl" (10:11) is worthy for the "real" affection the cast has for the film with reflections by Oscar nominated screenwriter, Nancy Oliver, and a specially articulate director (Craig Gillespie). 'A Real Leading Lady' (5:55) features Ryan Gosling ad libbing facetiously with his co-star Bianca about making the film. The deleted "Bathtub" scene is impossibly short, clocking in less than a minute--but the written explanation by the director is insightful. The rest are trailers.)
Angel Plasticus
Director Craig Gillespie espouses a New York state of mind, after directing very successful commercials for over 16 years. He was born in Sydney, Australia, and he graduated from a NYC Art School. His first feature film, MR. WOODCOCK (2007), tanked at the box office even though it starred Billy Bob Thornton, and Susan Sarandon. It is possible that the movie released was not his director's cut, or his vision. The LA Times reported that David Dobkin was "brought in" to direct 3 weeks of re-shoots. Considering that most comedies of this ilk are shot in a month, it makes one wonder how much of Gillespie's film was left intact. Regardless, he has sprung back with a vengeance finishing up and releasing his second feature, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007). It was shot in just 31 days. Gillespie had a momentary career as an actor in 1997, doing a walk on in HOTEL DE LOVE. He presently enjoys a reputation as an "actor friendly" kind of director, and he certainly managed to get wonderful performances from his entire cast on LARS.
LARS was written by Nancy Oliver. She is a playwright, like Alan Ball another playwright that worked with her on the HBO series SIX FEET UNDER. She has what I consider an excellent ear for realistic dialogue. She has written a script for LARS where every character is important, necessary, and integral to the whole--pregnant with drama, humor, and the best kinds of human interaction. She and director Gillespie took a subject matter that easily could have lurched into a downward spiral of crudeness that would have made the Farrelly Brothers giddy. Remarkably, sensitively, no character in LARS is made a fool of, is forced to clown around or burlesque the situation, and is not ever expected to sink into a trite and crass caricature that must spew smut for smirks. Regardless of a lackluster trailer, or an "iffy" choice of plot device, understand that there is never anything scatological about LARS. Its inherent decency outshines its odd and unique turn of events.
Ryan Gosling soars and shines in the lead role of Lars Lindstrom. Nominated for a Best Actor Oscar last year for HALF NELSON (2006), he seems to get better with every film role that comes his way -not bad for an actor who was a Mouseketeer with Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. His Lars is both heartfelt and gut-wrenching, done miraculously without raising his voice. His internal monologue was crystal clear to him, and the camera lens catches it all, the back story, the pain, the fear, and ultimately the joy. His eyes mirror miles of unspoken history, and he was not out of character for even a millisecond. His Lars is a laconic loner who chooses to live in the family garage, who holds down a good and solid job, who attends church regularly, who dresses well and acts appropriately in public. He was not mentally ill; rather mentally still born, wound up as tight as a Rolex mainspring, a man who would rather sit in solitude than embrace "acceptable" levels of socialization.
Lars' brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and sister-in-law, Karin (Emily Mortimer) try repeatedly to draw Lars feet first out of his preferred loneliness. It is Karin mostly who leads the assault; tackling him in the snow to make a point, even though she is pregnant. They feel that somehow Lars' behavior reflects their "neglect", and so they toil incessantly to drag Lars into the family unit. Lars resists, making promises and then breaking them, making up excuses and lying to friends and family that offer him opportunities to socialize. He only feels "safe" within himself, alone, where his active daydreams could endeavor to counter his dark nightmares.
One day, perhaps tired of the constant cajoling, Lars announced that he now had a "girlfriend" named Bianca, from Brazil, who spoke very little English, and used a wheelchair. Then he brought her in, carrying in his arms a very expensive anatomically-correct helium-filled sex doll, a silicone Sally, and he placed it on the couch next him. He immediately began to talk to her as if she were real, imagining her verbal responses and sharing them. In one of the film's most hilarious scenes, after overcoming the initial shock of this situation, Gus and Karin feel compelled to go along with the "illusion", the fantasy; not seeing it as a ruse, which it might have been. After a few days of this pretense, Gus confronted Lars, informing him that Bianca was not "real". Lars never wavered, paid no attention to him -gave him no reaction at all. So Gus shrugged and returned to his part in the active fantasy.
Through deft direction, artful and clever writing, and terrific acting, we soon witness every character in the story "accept" Bianca as a sentient being, interact with her, and fully integrate her presence, and the notion that Lars and Bianca were a couple, into their daily lives, into the daily goings-on within the community. By virtue of this loving gesture, they soon see Lars, for the first time, reaching out and beginning to shed part of his emotional shell. The "couple" join in and attend parties, church, volunteer at the hospital, and at the school, get involved with the PTA. Children especially love Bianca. Soon she becomes the town "sweetheart", and townsfolk are picking her up for her volunteer work and appointments, like at the beauty shop, by herself. Lars is no longer required to accompany her, and at first this really incensed him. But the largest miracle of this movie is by mid-point we the viewers began to accept Bianca as real. Several times in scenes I swore I saw her head turn slightly, or her eyelashes flicker. When Lars began to realize that he, too, could relate to others without Bianca in attendance, he began to formulate a plan.
Patricia Clarkson, always reliable, was solid, engaging, warm, and lonely as Dagmar, the town doctor -who also happened to be a psychologist. "All doctors have to have a background in psychology to work this far North," Karin said early on. Kelli Garner played Margo, a lonely co-worker with ticks and needs of her own, who kept trying to get Lars interested in her, and her performance was touching and effective. Nancy Beatty played Mrs. Gruner, a nice neighbor, who stole every scene she was in as a no-nonsense loving presence. R.D. Reid was also quite good as Reverend Bock, who facilitated the entering in of the fantasy.
This film tugged hard at my heart strings. By the roll of the ending credits one could hear sniffling aplenty on all sides. We take serious all the transitions that Lars endures and induces as a 27 year old man boy; issues of when does one become "grown up", and what exactly does it mean to "be a man". We discovered what it was that created the sadness within him, that shut him off from others -and we smiled and silently cheered as he resisted it, refocused it, pushing it aside as he moved on toward a more meaningful life. Yes, we could see the "feel good" ending approaching, but alas we were happy to welcome it
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