The search for love begins outside the box

Lars and The Real Girl is a story about a man with a delusion. This man, Lars aka Mr Sunshine, is a sweet and shy soul living in a small town. He has difficulty being sociable and is not good with people. If they even so much as touch him, it is physically painful for him. A colleague at work introduces him to the idea of purchasing a sex-doll over the Internet. He does so, after not being really taken with the idea at first. A few days later, a huge box arrives. This is the arrival of Bianca, the love doll that causes all the trouble but fixes everything, without so much as saying a word. When Lars tells his brother, Gus, and sister-in-law, Karin, played by Paul Schneider (Assassination of Jesse James) and Emily Mortimer (Match Point, 30 Rock), that he has a visitor, they are extremely glad that he is being sociable. To their shock and horror, Bianca is cold, shiny plastic.

The only thing they can come up with is to take Lars to a shrink and disguise his mental help by taking Bianca along so she can receive a check up. The general practitioner/psychologist tells Gus and Karin that Lars has a delusion and needs this doll to work up the courage and strength to make it in a real relationship. By real I mean, a traditional man-women twosome. The shrink, Dagmar, played by Patricia Clarkson, tells them he will get over his delusion when he needs to, and that Bianca is in town for a reason. Gus and his wife pass on this news to the rest of community asking them to take part in making Bianca feel at home and act like it is actually a she.

They all do so, and this is where the story becomes remarkable. Margo, a new girl at Lars’ workplace, fancies him, but she has competition with Bianca. He continues to form a meaningful relationship with the doll for most of the film, but his delusion wears off when he realizes Margo has found another man. Needless to say, Bianca, who at this point almost feels like a character with blood running though her veins and a larger than life persona due to all the fuss she creates, is no longer needed, and Lars can finally pursue a relationship with Margo when she breaks it off with her boyfriend/colleague.

The direction and writing of the film is remarkable. The audience is drawn into this simple story with big heart, especially through the intense and honest performance by Ryan Gosling. I think the film had less to do with a man with a mental illness overcoming his imagined fears and more with a lonely man who is able to learn to accept others through human kindness and sensitivity. The film never felt overly calculated to me, and never seemed to be begging for sentimental laughs and tears; it had all the right ingredients to make it a memorable sensitive comedy-drama. I loved it so much that I saw it twice in two days.

Fatac Rating: ****

Lars and The Real Girl. Directed by: Craig Gillespie, written by Nancy Oliver, starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson and Kelli Garner. Running Time: 106 minutes. Age Restriction: PG13. UA 2007. Rating out of five stars.