Review of Lars and the Real Girl (2007) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

Directed by Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock (2007) and Fright Night (2011)), and written by Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under and True Blood), this is a very offbeat independent comedy-drama with manages to be heartfelt and heartbreaking at the same time, you won't see another one like this for a while.

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is a 27 year old misfit who lives the converted garage of the house he and his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) inherited from their late father. Lars has always found it difficult to communicate with his family, which also includes Gus's wife Karin (Emily Mortimer), and there's Margo (Kelli Garner) at work, who has a friendly liking for Lars, but Lars always manages to shy away from her.

Then, out of the blue, a large package turns up for Lars, and Lars suddenly announces he's met a girl over the internet, which pleases Gus and Karin, until they discover the girl in question is a lifesize adult doll that Lars bought from an adult website, he's named the doll Bianca, and moves her around in a wheelchair.

Gus and Karin, and indeed the whole town play along with Bianca being in town, which they cope with while Dr. Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) tries to get to the bottom of why Lars is acting like this. It's a serious comedy which is gentle and moving, with Gosling giving a brilliant performance as the quirky, tormented Lars, but even the Bianca doll manages to become a character in it's own right, giving the film a gentle humour and added poignancy.