Review

Review Date: 28-October-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

The Lars with whom this movie deals is a 27-year-old man who lives in a small northern town (Minnesota maybe?) and has an unhealthy fear of human connection. Although he inherited half of a big house from his father (his mother having died giving him birth), he prefers to inhabit the garage and leave the house to his brother Gus, his sister-in-law Karin, and their impending child. He communicates enough to go to church and hold down a desk job, but he interacts as little as possible. Of course he has never had a girlfriend, and of course everybody who takes an interest in him laments this and tries to goad him out of his shell.

The goading works to the point of getting Lars to acknowledge that he needs someone special in his life. And so he acquires one the only way he can: he buys one off the Internet. Bianca arrives in a wooden crate with long eyelashes, lush hair, and firm limbs that bend in lifelike directions. In Lars' mind she doesn't speak much English and is confined to a wheelchair, but is otherwise perfect. He introduces her to his family with pride and relief. Thus begins his journey towards manhood.

A comedic drama like this could be too off-color or too saccharine, and "Lars and the Real Girl" flirts with being both. What makes it work from start to finish is leading man Ryan Gosling, probably the most watchable actor today. Melting into his role as always, Gosling adds dimensions to Lars which even the screenwriter might not have envisioned. He is sick but not twisted. His fears are rooted in understandable causes. He is not incapable of seeing reason. He is free, as the town's doctor/shrink/Yoda figure (Patricia Clarkson) says, of syndromes and diseases. He is merely in great need and under the spell of delusion.

Speaking of delusions, the movie succumbs to one in its insistence that Lars' entire community agrees to accept Bianca on his behalf, not just Gus (Paul Schneider) and Karin (Emily Mortimer, who is almost as powerful as Gosling in her sweetness). My credulity does not stretch far enough to allow that Lars' co-workers would chat up a sex doll at their Christmas party or that Bianca would be elected to the school board. For Gosling's sake, though, I'll dismiss these things as Capraesque flights of fancy and buy that one co-worker (Kelli Garner) might hope to catch Lars' eye if and when he decides to swap plastic for flesh. Indeed for Gosling's sake I regard the truths in this movie over the delusions and recommend it as a story worth watching.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.