Lars and the Real Girl

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Lars and the Real Girl

Promotional film poster
Directed by Craig Gillespie
Produced by Sarah Aubrey
Written by Nancy Oliver
Starring Ryan Gosling
Emily Mortimer
Paul Schneider
Kelli Garner
Patricia Clarkson
Nancy Beatty
Music by David Torn
Cinematography Adam Kimmel
Editing by Tatiana S. Riegel
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) United States:
October 12, 2007
Canada:
November 2, 2007
Running time 106 minutes
Country Canada
Language English
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 film written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, receiving a standing ovation, and showed again on September 13 as well as twice on September 15, 2007 at the Boston Film Festival, where the director took questions from the sold-out audience after the first screening. It was released on October 12, 2007 in New York and Los Angeles.[1] The movie was filmed in various locations in Ontario, Canada.

Contents

[edit] Information

Ryan Gosling stars as Lars Lindstrom, an extremely shy young man living in a small town. He purchases a sex doll online and proceeds to introduce her to his brother and sister-in-law as his girlfriend. Despite the concerns of his friends and relatives, a local doctor notes that since Lars otherwise has a highly functional personality that threatens no one, this delusion is a sign that he is working through some personal issues and his loved ones should play along in the meantime. With some persuasion, the entire town eventually participates as well with growing enthusiasm for this unusual, but enjoyable, activity as Lars continues to pursue what he perceives as a deep and meaningful relationship with the doll.

[edit] Plot

Lars Lindstrom is a good man. He lives in the garage in his parents' house while his brother and sister-in-law – Gus and Karin – live in the main house, following their parents' death. Although he is kind to everyone, he epitomizes shyness and avoids any human contact with the town. While the people in the town pressure him to talk to the new girl at his work, Margo, he's too introverted. While at work one day, Lars' perverted coworker mentions a Real Doll that can be purchased to model an actual woman.

The film now jumps to six weeks later, when a new package arrives for Lars. He next, in a surprising move from his usual shyness, approaches Gus and Karin and tells them he met a girl. He states that she is wheelchair bound, and since they do not want to have sex, he would like her to stay in the guest bedroom inside their house. They happily agree until they realize this new girl is actually Bianca, a Real Doll ordered previously. Concerned, they convince Lars to take Bianca to the family doctor to make sure she is okay. Karin mentions to Gus that since the family doctor is also a psychologist ("she says you have to be, this far north"), the visits will actually help determine why Lars is treating Bianca as a real woman.

Dagmar, the doctor, tells Lars that Bianca is sick, and will need to see her each week for treatment. Lars consents and agrees to talk to Dagmar about their relationship while Bianca sleeps as part of her treatment. Later, when Dagmar calls Karin and Gus in to tell them Lars is not crazy, she explains that the human mind, when faced with a serious problem, will take measures to protect and fix itself. She says that some unknown problem plagues Lars, and he lacks the power on his own to fix it. He likely created Bianca as a real girl to fix that problem. She explains that eventually Lars will be fine and that the best they can do for him is to go along. Reluctantly, Gus and Karin agree.

As time passes, Lars begins to bring Bianca on "dates" out on the town. The other townspeople are at first unnerved, and the parishioners meet with Gus and Karin to discuss Lars. When things get heated, one of the women in the group points out that one of the group dresses their pets in outfits, and that most people in the town do something weird. She explains that Lars' behavior seems bizarre, but is not that strange compared to everyone else. The local pastor states he will go along with the facade.

Eventually, the community begins to act toward Bianca as a real woman, and she makes friends. Some women talk about giving her a makeover, while others mention that she would like to volunteer at the hospital reading stories to children or working as a model in a clothing store. Lars agrees that Bianca really wants to do these things, and eventually she is even elected to the school board. Lars interacts more with the townspeople through Bianca. During one of his sessions with Dagmar, he mentions how Karin is always hugging people even when they [he] doesn't feel comfortable with it. After some further questioning from Dagmar, he confides that he is unable to touch people as it feels as though he's burning. He explains that so much as shaking hands is excruciating. Dagmar tries to help him. He claims he can bear the pain when she touches his arm, but panics when she touches his neck. During another visit, when the subject of children comes up (Karin's arrival date is weeks away), as well as how Bianca and Lars both lost their mothers (Lars's mother died giving birth to him), Lars has a panic attack, and he says it's "dangerous." Dagmar assures him [the medical community] has come a long way, but he just keeps repeating, "It's dangerous."

At work, Lars begins to notice Margo more, though she now has a boyfriend. He even walks to her cubicle, but turns and leaves without saying anything. One night, Lars comes home happy to see Bianca, but finds that she is about to leave for a party. Upset at wanting to spend time with his girlfriend, he asks Karin and the friend who will take her to leave the room. The two women hear Lars raising his voice during the fight and later the friend, while placing Bianca in the car, explains to Lars that it is unfair for Bianca to be at his beck and call. She states that Lars would not wait while Bianca was out, so she should not wait for him. While Bianca is gone, Karin tries to comfort a visibly upset Lars as he angrily chops firewood. They begin to argue, eventually leading to Lars emotionally proclaiming that no one cares about him, and Karin replying that everyone in the town cares about him. She also, still emotionally, tells him (while still playing in the facade) that all everyone has done, from accepting Bianca to making her part of the community, is because everyone loves Lars. After Bianca returns, she and Lars stay awake making up. Lars later tells Dagmar that he asked Bianca to marry him, but she said no. He also says that she is getting sicker.

At work, Margo has a heated fight with a coworker over her favorite stuffed bear that has been "hanged." After Margo runs off crying, Lars goes to try to comfort her. While talking to her, he charmingly resuscitates the bear. Margo then says she was mainly crying because she broke up with her boyfriend. She explains that there was no chemistry or other reason to be together, but she was only with him because she didn't want to be alone. This appears to strike a chord with Lars. After a pause, Margo asks Lars if he wants to go bowling Friday, her, him and Bianca. Lars replies that Bianca has a school board meeting, but he might as well do something to pass the time during her meeting. So they agree to meet.

At the bowling alley that night, the two enjoy themselves. After a while, some people who work with Gus come in, and finding there are no available lanes, decide to join Lars and Margo. The group has a good time, with Lars genuinely enjoying himself and admiring Margo, a drastic change from his previous self. At the end of the night, while saying goodbye, Lars explains to Margo that he could never cheat on Bianca. She replies that she would never ask him to, and hopes to one day find a man like that for herself. However, as they leave, Lars takes off his glove and holds her hand as if in a handshake, not being in any pain.

One morning, Gus and Karin wake to Lars screaming at Bianca to wake up. Lars tearfully says that Bianca is unconscious. Karin, in a panic, tells him to call 911, and paramedics take Bianca to the hospital. Dagmar tells Gus and Karin that this illness is in Lars' mind, as though his subconscious is ready for Bianca to leave. Lars later tells them that Bianca would like to be brought home and made comfortable before she dies. The news spreads through the town, with everyone whose life was touched by Bianca bringing flowers or food to help the family.

Lars is distraught over Bianca being terminal, so Karin and Gus invite Bianca, specifically, to join them to visit the lake. Lars and Bianca have a moment alone in which Lars kisses her for the first time and sobs on her shoulder as she dies. Karin and Gus watch as Lars takes Bianca into the water in an act of desperation.

Bianca is given a funeral in which all of the townspeople attend, yet at the request of Lars, nobody wears black. The mood is happier than most funerals, and after Bianca is buried, everyone leaves, except for Lars and Margo. The film ends as they talk about Bianca, and Lars asks Margo if she would like to go for a walk. Margo emphatically says "Yes."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Release

The film opened in limited release in 7 theaters in New York and Los Angeles[1] on October 12, 2007, grossing $90,418.[2] The DVD was released April 15th, 2008.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of April 20, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 115 reviews.[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.[4]

The Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern said "It's nothing less than a miracle that the director, Craig Gillespie, and the writer, Nancy Oliver, have been able to make such an endearing, intelligent and tender comedy from a premise that, in other hands, might sustain a five-minute sketch on TV." Morgenstern also wrote, "It is also, on its own modest terms, an almost perfect movie with flawless performances." He said Lars is "played brilliantly by Ryan Gosling" and said Patricia Clarkson is "droll, dry and precise, yet mysteriously intense."[5] Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor gave the film an "A−". Rainer wrote, "Director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Nancy Oliver want to shock audiences, but not in the ways you might expect. Their movie is about loneliness and the ways in which it is mitigated by human kindness. If Frank Capra were starting out today, he might have made a film like this one." and said "Capra often front-loaded his morality plays with a heavy dose of whimsy. Gillespie and Oliver do a similar thing here."[6] Howard Karren of Premiere gave the film 3 1/2 stars and said the film "manages to explore the pain of mental illness and still be funny." Karren said "The movie takes a humanist and Capra-esque approach to all-American eccentricity, yet never seems goofy, simplistic, or maudlin." Karren condluded, "Lars's attraction to Bianca is like an audience's to an actor onscreen – the object is fake, an approximation, but for some that's better than flesh and blood. Bianca is a work of art. And so is Lars and the Real Girl."[7]

However, The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis called the film "part comedy, part tragedy and 100 percent pure calculation, designed to wring fat tears and coax big laughs and leave us drying our damp, smiling faces as we savor the touching vision of American magnanimity. It holds a flattering mirror up to us that erases every distortion." Dargis said "Hollywood used to turn out these visions on a weekly basis; it still does on occasion, often by way of sports flicks, though no one sold this type of canned hokum like the old-school professionals." Dargis also wrote, "American self-nostalgia is a dependable racket, and if the filmmakers had pushed into the realm of nervous truth, had given Lars and the town folk sustained shadows, not just cute tics and teary moments, it might have worked." She also said, "Lars’s anguish has nothing to do with the loneliness of small towns or alienation in the modern world or even real pain" and described the character as "phony."[8] Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and said "this disingenuous fable panders to misconceptions about the power of love and acceptance to drive down the demons of mental illness."[9] McDonagh wrote, "Gosling is the film's salvation: He really is good enough to make this underwritten fantasy feel as though it amounts to something. But it doesn't."[4]

Yet Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan said Oliver, Gillespie and the cast have constructed "a Frank Capra-style fable, a throwback tribute to the joys of friendship and community, around a sex toy." Turan said "The creators of this film were fiercely determined not to go so much as a millimeter over the line into sentiment, tawdriness or mockery. It's the rare film that is the best possible version of itself, but Lars fits that bill."[10] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and called the film "an offbeat comedy that plays as if Preston Sturges came back to life and collaborated with the Coen Brothers on an updated version of the Jimmy Stewart film Harvey." Lumenick said the script by Nancy Oliver "eschews cheap laughs for character-driven humanist comedy, and is sensitively directed by Craig Gillespie."[11]

Associated Press film critic Christy Lemire named the film the eighth best film of 2007;[12] however, Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Glieberman named it the third worst movie of 2007.[13]

[edit] Awards and nominations

  • Satellite Awards
    • Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical (Ryan Gosling) – WON
    • Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical (Emily Mortimer)
    • Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
    • Best Screenplay, Original (Nancy Oliver)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b http://www.larsandtherealgirl-themovie.com/public/showtimes.html Retrieved 2007-10-16
  2. ^ Lars and the Real Girl (2007) – Weekend Box Office. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  3. ^ Lars And The Real Girl – Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
  4. ^ a b Lars and the Real Girl (2007): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
  5. ^ Joe Morgenstern (2007-10-12). Movie Miracle: 'Lars' Is a Smart, Tender Comedy. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  6. ^ Peter Rainer (2007-10-12). Plastic sheen, vibrant heart. The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  7. ^ Howard Karren (2007-10-11). Premiere – Lars and the Real Girl. Premiere. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  8. ^ Manohla Dargis (2007-10-12). A Lonely Guy Plays House With a Mail-Order Sex Doll. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  9. ^ Maitland McDonagh. Lars And The Real Girl: Review. TV Guide. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  10. ^ Kenneth Turan (2007-10-12). MOVIE REVIEW 'Lars and the Real Girl'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  11. ^ Lou Lumenick (2007-10-12). MIDWESTERN LOVE FOR DUMMIES. New York Post. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.
  12. ^ David Germain; Christy Lemire (2007-12-27). 'No Country for Old Men' earns nod from AP critics. Associated Press, via Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
  13. ^ Owen Glieberman (2007-12-21). 'The Worst Movies of 2007'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.

[edit] External links