Genre: Dramedy
Tagline: The search for true love starts outside the box.
Ebert gave it 3.5 stars
This movie could have been awful, this movie could have been like that one movie with Christina Ricci, Pumpkin, where she falls in love with a handicapped boy and everyone hates her for it. But it wasn’t, this movie was a breath of fresh air.
I’ve been a big fan of Ryan Gosling for a while now, and totally fell in love with him in Half Nelson. Again Gosling takes a risk by playing Lars, a socially awkward, shy young man who is living in his deceased parent’s home with his brother and sister-in-law. Actually he lives in a room in the garage. Lars goes through life avoiding human company at all costs. But it all changes when he meets Bianca, the inflatable doll. They start a relationship and soon the community embraces Bianca, the missionary from Brazil who is in a wheelchair, in hopes of helping Lars out of this strange slump he has fallen into. Lars shows us that even his relationship has ups and downs, yet he proves to be a loyal, genuine boyfriend through it all.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie are when he is preparing himself for the introduction (and unwrapping and inflating) of his new companion. Lars gets so excited, so nervous just like a real first date. The magic of this movie is the balance between being so obscure yet tender. Gosling brings Bianca to life, and by the end you are thinking of her as a person not just a doll, and you never feel dirty for seeing a movie about a sex toy.
Gosling brings the perfect amount of humor, innocence, charm and quirk to Lars making him the perfect contender for top honors at the Academy Awards. Sharing the screen are two lovely ladies, Emily Mortimer and Kelli Garner. Lars’s sister-in-law (Mortimer) shows great sympathy and understanding without treating him any differently, she tucks in Bianca and baths her and even lets her borrow her clothes. Margo (Garner) crushes hard on Lars, yet never shows any resentment towards him or Bianca the way a normal jealous girl might. And let’s not forget Bianca, the way everyone interacts with her makes her another character in the movie too. At the end you know what kind of person she is, even if Lars just made her, and her story, up. It’s so touching.
Cheers to the writers and cast of Lars and the Real Girl, your smart humor has made me smile and enjoy a comedy, which is a rare achievement. And you made me feel something good, opened my heart – also something rare. I love, love, love this movie and everything it represents, and in a way it makes me want to fall in love…even if it were with a doll.
My Rating: 
Grey Goose. Really, this movie is top shelf.
