Lars and the Real Girl: DVD Review (2008)

Fake girl, real problems.

This unusual film follows 27-year-old Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling), a shy, God-fearing man who orders a life-size sex doll through the Internet and eventually accepts her not only as a real person, but also as his new girlfriend, Bianca, a half-Brazilian, half-Danish missionary.

Good for Lars, you say? Not so fast.

The trouble is that for Lars, none of this is a joke. He expects everyone in his life to accept Bianca as a living human being, which not only sounds screwy given Bianca’s rubbery mouth, corked gaze and strawlike hooker wig, but also, as far as this movie is concerned, painfully manufactured and a wee bit creepy.

And yet in spite of its awkward opening moments, in which it isn’t clear whether the film is intended to be a comedy or a drama, the movie eventually unfolds with such grace and seriousness, it nudges you into acceptance of the absurd.

It takes time for that to happen--this is a movie that grows on you--but when you come to believe what Lars believes, the movie can be disarmingly powerful.

With Paul Schneider, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and the terrific Kelli Garner.

View the unedited review here.

Rated PG-13. Grade: B+