Movie Review: Lars and the Real Girl
If you wonder why I'm just now getting around to seeing "Lars and the Real Girl," a 2007 movie, remember—in 2007, I was in the middle of earning a PhD. (When I emerged last year, I asked, "John Wayne died? Really?")
If you want to see what I consider the ideal faith flick, this comes quite close. The movie is in no way billed as a "faith" film. But the community of faith and the question of what Jesus would do and the cost of love all provide the architecture upon which the screenwriter has built the storyline.
"Lars and Real Girl" features Academy-Award nominated Ryan Gosling as Lars Lindstrom, a kind introvert with some serious emotional baggage. After years of hermit-like living, he orders a life-sized doll, Bianca, off the Internet. But he has no kinky intentions. He believes she's real.
The day Bianca arrives, he introduces her to his big brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and Gus's wife, Karen (Emily Mortimer), who live with him in adjacent quarters on the land the guys inherited from their parents. Gus and Karen sit speechless, wondering what to say to Lars or Bianca, the life-size doll he treats as a real person. When they consult the family doctor, Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson), she explains Lars has created a delusion they will have to "go along with" until they figure out why he has created her. What follows is an emotional journey for every person in Lars's community.
Our psychiatrist friend told my husband and me that it doesn't help to tell people their delusions and hallucinations are not real. So he "enters the story" with them. This film shows what it looks like to do that. And in doing so, it provides a model of community at its best.
In addition to its compassionate approach, quirky humor, and wise storytelling, the film features everyday folks who actually look like everyday folks, rather than perfect specimens of physical beauty. For once "reality" in a movie means something other than colorful language and violence.
Two thumbs up.