Plot Overview
This strange, strange movie could have gone wrong so many times in so many different directions, yet somehow, it manages to stay honest and connect with its audience. Lars and the Real Girl was directed by Craig Gillespie, whose only other directing credit was Mr. Woodcock, which came out to theatres earlier this year. It is pretty cool to think how a no-name filmmaker could find such a touching script and hire a terrifically nuanced ensemble cast, which includes Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner and Patricia Clarkson. In this movie, Gosling plays Lars, a frighteningly shy and introverted young guy living in a small northern town. He lives in a garage of his brother’s (Schneider) house, who is a happily married man expecting a baby with his loving wife (Mortimer). However, everything changes one day when Lars suddenly introduces his girlfriend Bianca to the townspeople: a sex doll he ordered off the Internet. Even though this sounds sick and perverted, his “relationship” with her is purely genuine and true. So instead of people getting Lars a shrink or rushing him to a mental hospital, they collectively decide to go for the ride and accept Bianca as the real thing.

The Good
The one thing I admired the most about this movie is how it never went for easy jokes. This film has such a preposterous and bizarre plot, yet Gillespie never tried to push it too much. His direction and Nancy Oliver’s good-hearted original screenplay have a very delicate and subtle tone that makes parts of Lars and the Real Girl extremely quirky, funny and sad. Gosling is justifiably considered as one of the best actors of his generation, and here, he captures the essence of a damaged and complex character. In addition to his fascinating work, the performances of Mortimer (Match Point), Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James), Garner (Bully) and Clarkson (The Green Mile) are equally as good.

The Bad
Lars and the Real Girl starts off very slow. The pacing of the first half is extremely light-handled and bland, that there is a fear people might walk out on it instinctively. Nevertheless, if the viewers have some patience, the movie becomes quite a journey. There is one major flaw, however, and it is the idea of the entire town making the sacrifice to treat a sex doll as a real person, just because they love Lars so much. There has to be at least one person in town, who would speak out and say: “Hey, what is going on here?” I didn’t buy into that aspect of the movie.

Final Word
I read somewhere that during the shoot of the movie, the doll was treated like a real human being in order to keep Gosling in character. Apparently, “she” had her own trailer, where the makeup department would dress her up and she would only be present for scenes that she was in. This is how much the makers believed in their film. Apart from its flaws here and there, Lars and the Real Girl turns out to be a heartwarming, yet tragic, offbeat fable about loneliness and emotional detachment that is equal parts touching and tender.

Note: Last week, Lars and the Real Girl was surprisingly named one of the ten best movies of 2007 by the National Board of Review.