Lars and the Real Girl

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Lars and the Real Girl

84% Liked It
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Lars and the Real Girl

Emily Mortimer, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Schneider, Ryan Gosling

Lars Lindstrom is a loveable introvert whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, he invites Bianca, a friend he met on the internet to vis...( read more  read more... )it him. He introduces Bianca to his brother Gus and his wife Karen and they are stunned. They don't know what to say to Lars or Bianca--because she is a life-size doll, not a real person and he is treating her as though she is alive. They consult the family doctor Dagmar who explains this is a delusion he's created--for what reason she doesn't yet know but they should all go along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him.

Id: 10879648

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Recent Reviews

Lars and the Real Girl Recent Reviews
  • AgentLexi2132
    December 26, 2009
    AgentLexi2132
    ''Sometimes I get so lonely I forget what day it is, and how to spell my name.''

    A delusional young guy strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.

    Ryan Gosling: Lars Lindstrom

    Well where to start with Lars and the Real Gi...( read more)rl is that what may start of as a comedy created for laughs to begin with, slowly evolves into a more serious and thought provoking study.
    The study being in this case, of a man called Lars Lindstrom, subjecting himself to an isolated way of life by choice. Reasons for this choice are slowly explained as the movie takes it's time to play through the motions. Which are first making the majority of us laugh and secretly ridicule him like the townspeople do behind his back, then they all collaborate to help him and play along with his belief. That being said everyone begins to play a part with Lars and his newly acquired ''girlfriend''.


    Whats clever about Lars is that it never feels rushed or over done. The characters all seem to be believable in their set performances of the material given. Craig Gillespie utilizes all this to give this town and it's people a breath of life. As the film progresses Lars slowly begins to decrease, with the town people's help, his activity and time with Bianca the Doll. His appointments with the doctor help us grasp gradually what Lars mindset is while Margo, a co-worker, provides a real alternative to the Bianca relationship Lars has and he slowly subconsciously begins to realize this.

    Ryan Gosling's performance as Lars is really what this film is about. He not only changes his appearance but his mannerisms and disposition, his set ways and belief that consumes eventually the whole town to play along inside his delusional world, really has to be marveled.
    Also his headaches and spiraling evolution towards removing Bianca from his life without admitting she isn't real is moving. For Bianca may be seen to audiences as being not a real person to us, to Lars he believes that without question that she is real to him, and that I believe, Ryan Gosling as Lars succeeds in making me believe.

    Other performances I should mention are Patricia Clarkson as Dr Dagmar, who plays a psychiatrist accurately by showing that she has her share of problems also, everyone does. Emily Mortimer as Karin,Paul Schneider as Gus and Kelli Garner as Margo really all did very fine believable acting to flesh out their said characters with immense believability.
    Even Bianca seems to emit a performance herself becoming a character among the cast and a part of the Town and it's people.

    Lars and the Real Girl isn't one of those films which has fancy effects and non-stop action. It's not that kind of film, and even then, they are not required. What we get is something that transcends emotion and belief and breathes life into a genre that needs original and vibrant films such as Lars.

    A masterpiece that is as close to perfect as heaven doth allow, Ryan Gosling's transformation and performance acts as the breath of life responsible for this miracle.
  • lewiskendell
    September 25, 2009
    lewiskendell
    It seems like an almost impossibility for a movie with a plot like this to be sincere instead of creepy or sophomoric, but Lars and the Real Girl manages to walk that thin line pretty well most of the time. Sure, it requires a pretty huge suspension of disbelief by the viewer (A ...( read more)whole town being that nice and supportive? The whole ambulance and hospital thing? Not likely.), but if you can deal with that commitment then you're in for a uniquely pleasurable experience.

    Most of the acting burden falls on Ryan Gosling, and he fortunately never lets Lars become a pathetic or alienating figure. Sure, you feel sorry for him, but he still appears to be a likeable young man despite his problems. You root for Lars, just like his sister-in-law (a great Emily Mortimer) does. Watching how Lars changes over the course of the story is one of the big pluses of this movie.

    A lot of people will read the plot description and think this movie is too weird to even attempt to watch, but I would encourage more mature people to give it a shot anyway. Sometimes weird is good.
  • mjgildea
    September 3, 2009
    mjgildea
    Lars and the Real Girl was so far off the mark from what the trailer boasted that its almost criminal. Instead of the self-appreciating ball of quirk that the trailer promised, the film itself actually delivered one of the sweetest and most touching movies I've seen in a long tim...( read more)e. Ryan Gosling was all kinds of great and Patricia Clarkson was stupendous as always. Lars and the Real Girl also has near perfect cinematography (which alone is worth the time) and a fantastic score. The film kept me guessing right up to the end and had never went where I expected it to. Such a great, great film...
  • ceWEBrity
    August 4, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    I'll have to think more about this one. I was on board with it up until the ending, where the whole thing suddenly reeked of some warped version of Radio and it all moved quickly from sweet to preachy. Bianca is a great spacer between Lars and the audience - with her in the equat...( read more)ion, it's much harder to see this as the mental illness exploitation disaster that I'm inclined to think it may be.

    All right, I've let it soak for two days...I think my biggest disappointment, ultimately, was that its final few minutes turned the movie into something really sentimental and preachy when it really didn't need to be. The premise is quirky, different, and gently twisted enough to pull off a more against-the-grain ending. Instead, we get a bunch of audience baiting designed to remind the community why we should be nice to These People and How Much They Have Taught Us...About Ourselves. It's an old, cloying message employed by basically every film about mental illness ever, one that makes everyone involved look sycophantic.

    I will say this, though: Ryan Gosling's star continues to rise. His work in Half Nelson, another movie which I found to be flat, was indelible, and this is about the farthest turn away from that as possible. It's a little bit over-affected (we don't need the twitching to know that Lars is mentally ill) but the fact that he sells the insane amount of surreal, delusional shit that transpires is almost stunning. You end up really getting behind the character, and horrifyingly, he actually manages to personify Bianca as well. So good. Patricia Clarkson is thunderously effective in a handful of subdued scenes, and Kelli Garner, though limited, works perfectly in her role. Emily Mortimer has a certain odd flair for comedy but her dramatic work has been better; Paul Schneider is kind of wallpapery, but at least inoffensive. What all of the cast manages to do very well is accept the film's conceit, a sex doll demanding to be treated as a real person, and run with it as best as they can. They really emote with Bianca, communicating with her with varying levels of irony to suit the situation or their character, and not once do you feel the actors were unsure or awkward about their role in this story. Given that Bianca is either an extremely complex prop or a non-sentient actress, the amount of interaction they get out of her is admirable.

    Lars and the Real Girl is technically impressive (note also the Best Screenplay Oscar nod, which I don't think it deserved) but plummets into many of the same pitfalls that might plague a bigger Hollywood picture about a similar subject. If only films could let the characters they depict stand on their own without beatifying them - show them as real people instead of having a priest give us a three-minute monologue about how much they've changed our lives.
  • jamilyn0276
    April 22, 2009
    jamilyn0276
    Lars And The Real Girl is a very touching story.
    I can honestly say, I was expecting something totally different, when I watched this movie. But, this was a heartfelt story of loneliness and the fears all of us face about relationships.
    Ryan Gosling was absolutely amazing as Lar...( read more)s. He tugged my heart strings and made me genuinely empathize with him, everything a great dramatic performance should do.
    Drop all your expectations at the door, and give this movie a shot. You won't be disappointed in what you find.
  • 76Majikat
    December 31, 2009
    76Majikat
    Recommended by Brian, Annelies
  • scrambledegg7
    December 29, 2009
    scrambledegg7
    About 20 minutes into the movie, I wasn't sure whether to be repulsed or amused by it. It walks a very fine line between creepy and hilarious, and, surprisingly, ends up being sweet. Ryan Gosling is the glue that holds this movie together. He doesn't milk his role for either laug...( read more)hs or sentimentality. He simply plays him as is. While overall the film was too unevenly paced for me to love it or want to watch it again, it ended up being very satisfying. Not at all what I thought it would be... but good nonetheless.
  • lozza0308
    December 28, 2009
    lozza0308
    This was an interesting idea. I enjoyed seeing how a whole town would get behind this one person and support them. It was sad and happy all at once. Ryan has done a good job.
  • vela21
    December 26, 2009
    vela21
    Simply brilliant!!!!.. i dont know this movie has something special that really really touches me..... just thing about it.. in the wrong hands this movie could it be a disaster, just the idea that a man falls in love for a doll pretty lame ah?... but instead that, the result is ...( read more)this master piece.... i know maybe im overreacting, maybe its because i didnt expect that much for this movie or.. i dont know but that is wath it is for me.. as the cast excellent work from ALL of them. Other thing that i really like was photography and of course the story the best part, how they did fits it on a drama...

    P.s. Im not a critic im just a person that loves to se movies..
  • closedmouth
    December 18, 2009
    closedmouth
    Cute at first, it quickly becomes irritating to the point that I couldn't wait for it to be over. Gosling's tic-laden performance is laughably bad and the plot is so obvious and riddled with cliches I could see exactly what was going to happen within the first few minutes. Pop ps...( read more)ychology, home-spun wisdom, a town pulling together to help a guy out; the whole thing made me sick to my stomach. And that's without mentioning the gut-wrenchingly awkward scenes where people pretend the doll is a real person. Yuck.
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