Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson

Director: Craig Gillespie

Screenplay: Nancy Oliver

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance/Indie

Running time: 1 hr 46 mins



CRITIQUE:


There’s a material in the concept of LARS AND THE REAL GIRL that could easily border the awkward watching experience. A major character acquires a sex doll from a dodgy website, not just a blow-up plastic doll but real dolls in which can be customised if desired – and if that doesn’t sound prurient, bordering on pornographic, then this might a sort of film your parents wouldn’t want you to see. However, if not for the script’s wonderful and respectable subtlety, the direction’s careful handling and the performances’ warmth, this could have been an inferior film, succinctly judged and easily misunderstood. It is, in fact, a beautiful film with such a complex emotional core.


It tells a tale of a socially-alienated twenty-something man whose greatest dread is to be around with people, much worse being touched. This is Lars (a remarkable performance by Ryan Gosling), and he lives in a tiny house in a town which is seemingly in constant winter. The gloomy grey skies and surroundings perfectly accompany the tone of the film throughout. He shocks his indifferent brother and his caring sister-in-law by bringing home a life-size, fully-functional doll and yet pretends that she’s a missionary on a wheelchair named Bianca. What’s even surprising, Lars’s infallible innocence ignores the doll’s major function and treats her like an illusory person, sleeping in different room and goes to dates with her.


There a lot of funny moments, as Lars introduce his ‘girlfriend’ to the society. And what Patricia Clarkson’s doctor-cum-psychologist advises, everyone should accept the imagination drawn by Lars to help him recover and realise what he’s doing. The film’s main weakness lies on the town’s absence of any bully, who could insult Lars’s actions, making it a stereotypical view of a cleansed society. Nevertheless, this film works its wonders as it lets the audience view it as a symbolism of how society should treat misfits and loners, not totally isolate them but help them instead to be a part of the community. It is through Lars’s acquisition of doll that he learns about the realism of love, as he wakes up in consciousness about the importance of being loved back in return.


The greatest achievement of the film belies on its solid script, assured to not border into exploitation, but focuses more on character development and study of the foibles of human psyches. At the very nature of Lars is lonely man trying to reach out to human compassion, and that’s how exactly Gosling brilliantly embodied the character, as he doesn’t seek your sympathy, but rather your understanding.



VERDICT:

A quiet, dignified and moving film about the healing power of love and human compassion, kudos to this film that picks up an almost-awkward concept and transform it into a winning, sweet and heartwarming piece of gem.



RATING: A-