Lars and the Real Girl

Plot synopsis:
Lars Lindstrom lives a secluded life in a small Wisconsin town. It is gradually revealed that his mother died when he was born, causing his grief-stricken father to be a distant parent to Lars and his older brother, Gus. Gus left town as soon as he could support himself, returning only to inherit his half of the household when the father died.
The inheritance has been divided between the brothers: Lars lives in the converted garage; Gus and his (pregnant) wife Karin live in the house proper. Karin's attempts to invite Lars into the house for a family meal are usually unsuccessful; when he does come, conversation is difficult and he doesn't stay long. He avoids social contact, finding it difficult to interact with his family, co-workers, or members of his church. A co-worker, Margo, is interested in him, but he avoids anything more than brief encounters.
One day a large package arrives; that evening Lars tells Gus and Karin that he has a visitor whom he met via the Internet, a wheelchair-mobile missionary of Brazilian and Danish descent named Bianca. They discover that Bianca is a lifelike doll which Lars apparently ordered from an adult website. Concerned about his mental health, they convince Lars to take Bianca for a checkup to the family doctor, Dagmar, who is also a psychologist. Dagmar diagnoses Bianca with low blood pressure and advises Lars to bring her in for weekly treatments. Her aim is to have regular contact with Lars, hoping to get to the root of his behavior. She explains to Gus and Karin that his delusion is a manifestation of an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. She urges them to assist with his therapy by treating Bianca as a real person.
Lars begins to introduce Bianca as his girlfriend to the townspeople. Due to their concern for Lars, everyone treats Bianca as a real person. Lars soon finds himself interacting more with people. During this time, Margo has begun to date another co-worker, which silently bothers Lars.
Lars asks his brother when he knew he had become a man and what being a man means. Gus says when he began doing the right things for the right reasons, even when it hurts. Gus gives several examples, including their father keeping them, and taking care of them, even though he didn't know how. Gus says that he never should have left Lars alone with their father, and he apologizes for being selfish. Their conversation seems to reach Lars and his dependence on Bianca immediately seems to shift.
When a co-worker with whom Margo has been playing pranks goes a bit too far, Lars comforts her. During the ensuing conversation, Margo reveals she has broken up with her boyfriend. She invites Lars to go bowling, which he initially declines before reconsidering. The two spend a pleasant evening together along with some other townsfolk. Lars is quick to remind Margo he could never cheat on Bianca. Although obviously disappointed, Margo replies that the thought never crossed her mind. As they part, Lars takes his glove off to shake Margo's hand – a significant advance in his ability to interact with others; he earlier explained to the doctor that others' touch felt like "burning".
One morning soon after, Lars announces that Bianca is unresponsive, and an ambulance rushes her to the hospital. Once there, he tells his family that her prognosis is not good and that Bianca would like to be brought home. The news spreads through town, and everyone whose life has been touched by Bianca sends flowers or sits with Lars at the Lindstrom home. Gus and Karin ask Dagmar why this is happening, and she reveals that it indicates a significant shift for Lars. They suggest that Lars and Bianca join them for a visit to the lake. While the couple is hiking, Lars gives Bianca a very sad farewell kiss. As Gus and Karin make their way back from the hike, they discover despondent Lars in the lake with a 'dying' Bianca.
Bianca is given a full-fledged funeral that is well-attended by the townspeople. After Bianca is buried in the local cemetery, Lars and Margo linger at the grave site. When Margo states that she should catch up with everyone else, Lars asks her to take a walk with him instead, to which she happily agrees.

Tags: comedy, boring, psychological, cute, feel-good, psychedelic, romantic, sentimental

Review:
Lo and behold, a film that still believes in simple human kindness.There's been a severe lack of that on our movie and television screens lately, which is why I found "Lars and the Real Girl" utterly irresistible.
He's given two of the best performances in the last two years: here in "Lars" and last year in "Half Nelson." The success of "Lars and the Real Girl" depends almost entirely on Gosling's ability to sell this character to the audience, and he does so flawlessly.
In addition to Gosling and Clarkson, Emily Mortimer shines as Lars's caring and worried sister-in-law.It really irritates me that critics were divided on this movie on the basis of it pushing the boundaries of credibility, when they almost unanimously praised "Gone Baby Gone," a film so melodramatic and heavy handed as to be no less implausible, and that goes down as two of the most unpleasant hours I've spent in a movie theatre for a long time.
Has our culture now decided that a film about good kind people is too unrealistic to stomach, and that the only movies that ring true are ones about human depravity?
So far, "Lars and the Real Girl" is one of my favorite films of the year.Grade: A.
It is laugh-out-loud funny, but it is also thought-provoking and moving.Ryan Gosling provides a spectacular tour-de-force as a dysfunctional young man in a small town who only begins to blossom when he starts a "relationship" with an expensive love doll.
But Gosling provides the heart and soul of this remarkable film that never strikes a false note.The movie has an incredibly powerful and positive message about the ability of a community to heal and nurture a troubled soul by treating it with acceptance and compassion.
The product of genius writing by Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under) and solid direction by Craig Gillespie ("Mr. Woodcock"), this film will force you to step back and think about how you treat those who might be a little different or struggle with social interaction.Ryan Gosling is absolutely amazing as Lars.
The ride picks up steam when his relatives and then the entire town elect to play along.The entire cast is excellent with standout performances by Emily Mortimer ("Match Point"), Paul Schneider, the great Patricia Clarkson as the very wise and very human doctor, and Kelli Garner ("Thumbsucker") looking very homely as the co-worker with a crush on Lars.Not sure how wide of audience this will find, but I highly recommend to all adults ...
His brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and pregnant, caring sister-in-law, Karin (Emily Mortimer) live in the large house on the property.One day Lars meets a friend (the doll) on the internet and has her shipped to his home.
There is a reason this man is pretending that a "sex" doll is a real person, and its a very internal serious pain thats hes going through, which for me, understanding that part of the story, I felt it was mildly inappropriate for people to laugh, but I understood with time.
The local doctor (Patricia Clarkson) suggests that everyone in the small town in which they live go along with the delusion, hoping Lars is just working things out in his head.
Then there's this one character, played by the lovely young Kelli Garner, who has a crush on Lars from the beginning of the film.
The film shows how a small town rallies around a young man's choice of a differently abled girlfriend, showing its generous tolerance, acceptance, and support.
The film follows Lars' relationship with his doll and how those around him deal with the situation and eventually help him out of his shell.Lars and the Real Girl is one of those pseudo-indie movies that get churned out every year for no other reason than Oscar buzz.
Writer Nancy Oliver spills the beans early on when the doctor/shrink character (played by Patricia Clarkson) lays out the film's entire plot for us, and then we can only sit and stare as everything (slowly) unfolds exactly as described and expected.I'll admit it was pretty funny to see Lars' plastic girlfriend mingling with the others at the dinner table, but then the same sight gag is repeated ad nauseam for the next 30 minutes, while the plot of the film remains on hold.
It soon became clear that nothing interesting was going to happen, so I began to focus on other things in the film--like how extremely unlikely it would be that one would attend a work party in contemporary small-town mid-America where early '80s Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads are being played on vinyl.
It's a pity, since Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer give solid performances here.If you're the type who doesn't mind turning off your brain so you can be led down the sentimental and meandering garden path by a series of emotional clichés, golden sunsets and some tender piano music, then this is probably the film for you.
An Oscar nomination for the screenplay, and a Golden Globe nomination for Ryan Gosling as Lars, who finds love with a doll bought over the Internet.The shock to his brother Gus (Paul Schneider)) and his wife Kain (Emily Mortimer) is visible to all but Lars, but they play along.
For me was a big surprise the women playing the Margo character, she is such a powerful acting.Directing is doing a very good job in revealing growth of the troubled soul during the film.
As the film begins we meet Lars (Gosling) his brother Gus (Schneider) and his brothers pregnant wife Karin (Mortimer) they are quite a close family but from the outset you can see that Lars is a bit different, closed and a little geeky.
But when Lars turns up with Bianca his new girlfriend, who just happens to be a mail order high class sex doll, everyone really starts to worry about his state of mind.
From here on in the small local community, on doctor's advice, rally together to humour Lars and his new girlfriend, literally everyone is in on the act and all pretend that Bianca is real.
Some would ohh and ahh over the "kindness" of the characters for a poor lonely man, but one has to wonder why people would support someone who was NOT getting badly needed mental health help.All in all a very sad and unfunny film with decent acting, but all adding up to a wasted 90 or so minutes.
I'm pretty sure that most folks who watch this will have the intended notions of what it is all about, what with the well established film templates of welcome delusion and the visitor who transforms a town.But I'd like to point out one narrative device that makes this work as well as it does.
Sadly, this movie is nothing but an obvious rip-off of the amazing short "Anzhela" starring Alexey Diakov (2004) - one of the most watched feature "indie" videos in the World Wide Web, which has long been known, received over two million views just on Youtube - with the only difference being that "Lars and the real girl", alas, is not nearly as sublime as the original, nor about the acting, nor about the affecting audience and definition of the message.
In a hundred years of cinema, there's never been anything quite like Lars and the Real Girl, the new film from director Craig Gillespie and writer Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under).
Lars (Ryan Gosling) is not quite right in the head; he keeps to himself, he can't bear to be touched, and he resists the efforts of his sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) to draw him out of his self-imposed solitude.
Before long the whole town has agreed to treat Bianca as real: she attends church, has her hair done, and eventually gets accepted on the local school board.Funny as it is, Lars and the Real Girl isn't really a comedy; and although it's an exquisitely tender-hearted film, it's never sentimental (having a silicon sex-doll at its center pretty much makes sure of that).
This similarity is made explicit in the movie when Lars gives mouth-to-mouth to a co-worker's teddy bear (Margo, played by Kelli Garner, in a lovely, soulful performance).
The local psychologist suggests that the people around him go along with the delusion as a therapeutic exercise for Lars.The film works primarily because of the acting of Ryan Gosling as Lars and the rest of the cast.
The idea is so so fascinating, and the captain of the ship, Craig Gillespie directs the film with ease.The other prime reason why 'Lars And The Real Girl' works, is because of it's more than perfect casting.
I have a versatile taste when it comes to movies, but please, "Lars and the real girl" is literally a waste of time.
After the first few seconds they realize the situation with Lars, no single character thinks - even though the main idea behind the movie states exactly - it's not very normal to date a sex toy.Secondly, it's sort of unnerving people don't realize at all how potentially destructive it could be that downplaying mental illness and making it a quirk of personality and whatnot.
My condolences.Lars and the Real Girl at times is a movie that feels a bit transparent and predictable.
This quirky little film is one of the most charming, surprising movies that I have run across in recent years.In one of his earliest leading roles, you can see the talent behind the star that Ryan Gosling would become.
The premise for "Lars and the Real Girl" sounds like a bad teenage sex comedy, but it's actually a surprisingly touching drama about mental disorders and a community getting together to help one of its members get himself back together.
The basic concept is that a lonely and at least a little bit mentally disturbed man named Lars (Ryan Gosling) brings home a woman he has been "chatting with over the internet for a while".
Truly, truly, truly beautiful, thoughtful, original, striking, melancholic, comedic, compelling, well-acted, well-filmed, well-written film about a man struggling to fall back in love with life.The last time I felt this sad and happy and borderline exhilarated at the end of a movie for what it taught me about love was when I first saw Children of a lesser god.And, like that film- mark my words- watch for Ryan Gosling being nominated- and, like Marlee Matlin, very likely winning- the Academy Award.See this movie.
What a fascinating use of an unusual conceit to produce a movie full of humor, grace, and beauty.The conceit - troubled young man forms a relationship with a life-sized doll - is unusual, and looks like the kind of thing that could only go so far.
Lars and the Real Girl is another really different film, especially different for up-and-comer Ryan Gosling, who gave a fantastically good and extremely memorable performance in The Notebook.
Lars and the Real Girl never disappointsit's one of the best and strangest films I've seen all year..
If only all emotionally ill people were treated by their communities with such patience and kindness!The gifted young actor Ryan Gosling is wonderful as Lars; he wins and then gently breaks our hearts with his soft voice, nervous blinks and aching smile.
This does not mean that Lars and the Real Girl is a failure or a bad film, quite the opposite in fact, but I do think it should be made clear what to expect when going into it.
Even though it's not a first person perspective film, seeing Bianca through Lars's (and eventually the whole town's) eyes shows how much something can affect people's lives positively, if they only allow it.What is remarkable about Lars and the Real Girl is that the characters and story are so well developed that by the end you will see Bianca as a character in the film.
Three standout performances by Ryan Gosling as Lars, Emily Mortimer as Karin Lindstorm and Paul Schneider as Gus Lindstorm are strengthened by the best support acting that I have witnessed in a long time.
A small town man named Lars, so isolated from human contact that he recoils from love and sympathy of any kind, stuns his brother and sister-in-law with the news he met a woman on the internet--unfortunately, she's really a sex doll Lars imagines to be the perfect girl for him.
Ryan Gosling delivers a fully-realized lead performance; shying away from friends and family for fear of being pitied, his quirky half-smiles and quick movements tell people, "leave me be." It's a character we come to know so well, we can anticipate his feelings and reactions without getting broad hints (it's Oscar-caliber work).
Indeed, it may well be unique in American cinema, part romantic comedy, part serious study of mental illness but made with the lightest of touches so that it never offends and in the end is deeply moving, (and always, at every level, believable).Lars is a quiet young man, afraid of any kind of commitment, afraid of communication and afraid of the human touch who finds fulfillment in a blow-up doll called Bianca: (his interest isn't sexual; Bianca is the ideal girl-friend, someone who never talks back and whom Lars can even bring to church).
Likewise, Patricia Clarkson is wonderful,(as ever), as the doctor who treats Lars by treating Bianca and finally there is Ryan Gosling, surely the best young actor of his generation, as Lars.
There are also a few laughs to be sure, but it's not a comedy like "There's Something about Mary." Lars (Ryan Gosling) is as anti-social as they come.
Meanwhile, Lars begins to become attracted to Margo (Kelli Garner).Nancy Oliver's script is actually very simple, but it is made into a film with such tenderness and care that it becomes a complex movie.
Special mention goes to Kelli Garner for creating a character that is not only likable, but we believe that she is the perfect girl for Lars' affections because of her personality and not because the movie tells us to.
Like the somewhat inferior "Juno," "Lars and the Real Girl" is marketed as a comedy, and though it certainly contains a few smiles and laughs, it's actually more of a light-hearted introspective drama.
Nevertheless, I guess it's worth it because "Lars and the Real Girl" is definitely a movie to check out..
"Lars and the Real Girl" definitely proved me he's one of the finest names of this generation, and made me think that he'd actually have been an interesting choice to play the father in Peter Jackson's upcoming "The Lovely Bones", despite being too young for the part (Gosling dropped out before shooting started, and Mark Wahlberg replaced him).
Here, he plays Lars, an extremely shy, delusional young man who develops an emotional bond with a "love doll" he buys on the internet, Bianca (a "half Brazilian, half Danish" dummy that looks a lot like Rose McGowan).
Soon, the whole town accepts Bianca as Lars' girlfriend, in order to support the good-hearted young man.From the synopsis and the trailer, most people probably thought this was a stupid, American Pie-ish gross out comedy, and then ignored it or were sorely disappointed.
One of the best films of 2007, "Lars and the Real Girl" shouldn't be missed.
I can just hear the pitch to finance the movie if it had been the Farrelly Brothers' idea: "See, there's this stupid oddball played by that hunk Ryan Gosling -- well, okay, he's not a hunk but we'll have him work out with a personal trainer for six weeks -- and he gets this terrific idea to buy a life-size, anatomically correct plastic sex doll to be his girlfriend...yeah, you heard me right...anatomically correct.
It's a gentle story about Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling), a nice, delusional young man everyone in his town likes, but Lars is dealing with a lot of problems.
Trailers make this look creepy, but it's actually a touching and original movie, more surprising in its rather far-fetched premise than many another romantic comedy and another rare performance by Ryan Gosling (who when he's good, is remarkable) as the titular Lars.
His odd transition into adulthood and having a relationship is through the bridge of an "anatomically correct" life-sized female doll he calls Bianca.Knowing he needs a girlfriend, but quite incapable of dealing with Margo (Kelli Garner), the young woman at the office who's interested, Lars takes a hint from his office mate and orders the expensive "real girl" doll on the Internet.
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL isn't so much a love story as it is a parable about humanity and how people, when given the opportunity, will instinctively do good -- even when doing the right thing is a tad creepy and more than just a little bit goofy..
Novice film director, Craig Gillespie, would like you to meet Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling).
Lars and the Real Girl is a story about how people project their feelings, emotions, and thoughts onto others.
I loved Lars and the real girl and this is one of the few movies where an actor's performance has won the movie for me.
The film sounds like it was developed with Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell in mind, but the key here is that, while there are laughs to be had, Lars and the Real Girl is intended to be taken seriously.
Ryan Gosling proves with this film that he is the real deal- a good looking actor with some serious thespian skills.
'Lars and the Real Girl' is a beautifully unique story of acceptance and mental illness.
Ryan Gosling plays the broken character of Lars exquisitely and it is definitely one of his best-acted roles.
What a wonderful movie of love and acceptance and support and all the good feels!!
Instead, it is wonderful as the small town rallies to support him.I can't say more without creating "spoilers", so I'll just suggest you watch this move and fall in love with Lars, like I did.Enjoy!.