Official Synopsis:
Sometimes you find love where you'd least expect it. Just ask Lars (Academy Award Nominee Ryan Gosling), a sweet but quirky guy who thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in a life-sized doll named Bianca. Lars is completely content with his artificial girlfriend, but when he develops feelings for Margo, an attractive co-worker, Lars finds himself lost in a hilariously unique love triangle, hoping to somehow discover the real meaning of true love. You'll be swept off your feet by Lars And The Real Girl, hailed as "One of the Year's 10 Best" by The Associated Press.

  
Our Take:
When you hear the premise for Lars and the Real Girl you expect something the film doesn’t deliver, and I mean that in a good way. In a film about a man who has delusions that he’s in love with a realistic love doll, you’d expect a movie full of raunchy laughs and cheap gags. Instead, a better film presents itself; a touching film about a small town coming together to help a man sort out some deep-seated emotional issues.

We meet Lars, a borderline head case, who has a serious problem with connecting to people. He lives alone in the garage of his brother’s house and doesn’t have any friends. His sister in law has to plead mercilessly just to get him to come to dinner with the family. In order for him to be able to work out this problem he orders himself a realistic looking love doll and pretends that she is real. Lars presents the doll as a real person to the town, who instead of mocking him or dismissing it accepts the doll, which Lars names Monica, knowing that pretending the doll is real will help Lars deal with the problems in his life.

Now, this could have been a setup for a very randy, gag-filled comedy full of sappy moments, but instead it’s a more touching story of human connection. The story is obviously a bit of a stretch and we’re clearly supposed to take it in as a sort of fairy tale in the same vein as Edward Scissorhands. The film works because the filmmakers treat this as a real story. They take their premise seriously and deal with his issue as a serious problem, but at the same time keep the film a comedy without ever making jokes at Lars’s expense.

What really helps us believe this story is the wonderful performance by Ryan Gosling, who never plays Lars for comedy. His performance is heavily grounded in reality, so we actually believe his character arc. You really believe this man has deep, heartfelt feelings for this doll. He makes every right decision; even having the mustache is perfect for his character.

The script, at times, borders on some brillant writing by Nancy Oliver. The movie is still bogged down because in many ways, as an audience member, you have to try to believe in this story. Luckily the film is so well made you want to try to believe that this town is so nice that they would help Lars with his illness and that a man could love a doll as a real person.

The Lars and the Real Girl DVD is kind of a dud. One 1-minute deleted scene, a short making-of feature, and a gag extra that’s just not funny and a waste of time is all that you get.

* The Real Story of Lars and the Real Girl (10 minutes) – A cleverly titled making of feature.

* A Real Leading Lady (5 minutes) – A terribly unfunny Featurette where the cast talks about the love doll they used in the movie like she’s a real actor.

* Deleted Scene: “Bathtub” (1 minute) – A deleted scene that didn’t add or subtract anything from the movie.

I think the Lars and the Real Girl will test some audience’s suspension of disbelief, while others will be more open to it and embrace the concept and find themselves enjoying a truly heartfelt moving film experience. I found myself in between those two extremes but either way this film is definitely worth a watch and, for some, a buy.

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Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: C+

- Adam Rettek
Staff Writer