A good movie with an unusual premise

10/11/07

Lars and the Real Girl
Directed by Craig Gillespie

The premise of Lars and the Real Girl would make most reasonable people run far away from the film. Don't do it. You would miss a lovely, sweet, fairy tale of a film. Stay with TVOR here, and believe that she would not lead you astray. The film tells the story of Lars (Ryan Gosling), a young man who, not doing very well in his relationships with family and friends, falls in love with a life-size, anatomically correct plastic doll. Which he thinks is a live woman. Amazingly (and this is where the fairy tale part comes in), he is not institutionalized, nor is he mocked and shunned. Instead, he is loved and accepted and cared for by his community--as is his plastic pal. Don't try to make sense of it, just see the film and enjoy. The script (by Nancy Oliver, of Six Feet Under) is clever and original, the acting (by Gosling, Emily Mortimer, and Patricia Clarkson, among others) is excellent, and the film never goes for the cheap, easy joke. Instead, the characters stay true to their own world and their own concerns, and the result is very satisfying. Lars and the Real Girl opens October 12th. Check it out.

Video notes:

This film looks like a real change of pace for Ryan Gosling, who usually appears in far more serious fare. In Half-Nelson, he plays a dedicated inner-city teacher, fighting his own drug addiction while trying to help his students. In The Believer he plays a skinhead anti-Semite...who also happens to be Jewish. These are both worth a look on DVD if you've missed them along the way.

And then there's The Notebook. Don't see it (it's sappy and predictable) but don't hold it against him either. The talented cast couldn't save that one.