Others say...

"Comedy/Tragedy"
Loved this movie. Cried and laughed at the same time. Such a ridiculous premise, but it worked. Not just a girl-movie; guys will like this too.
So funny....

"I'm Impressed"
The premise sounds a bit out there, but it's well written and well acted, making an enjoyable and eminently watchable movie. I enjoy originality in movies, and there isn't enough of it. This is quite original.

Why only three stars? About halfway through the movie, or perhaps a little further, the focus drifted a little bit from the humor and into the "touching drama" which, quite honestly, didn't work for me so well. Not "bad," but maybe a little boring. Then it finished strong, which is how it started, but well, I'm a jerk.


"Disney meets The Twilight Zone"
Are there two movies in circulation titled Lars and the Real Girl--one a touching, laugh-how-loud comedy; the other an absurd and bizarre bore; a Disney version of The Twilight Zone? Judging from the reviews, there must be. I saw the latter.

The focus of the film is Lars Lindstrom, a shy, socially-challenged young man living on a farm near a small town in what I assume is the Upper Midwest--perhaps in Wisconsin, judging from the comment of Lars's brother that his bowling team had lost to the cheese inspectors, The farm is the Lindstrom family farm, inherited by Lars and his brother. Lars's brother lives in the house with his wife, while Lars occupies the adjacent garage. Lars works in town, and although it is supposed to be a small town, Lars's work setting is similar to many city businesses, with Lars and his coworkers occupying cubicles outfitted with desk and computer. Lars wants a girlfriend but is too shy and socially inept to get one the old-fashioned way. So he purchases a mail-order, life-size, anatomically-correct mannequin, whom he names Bianca. There is a reason these mannequins are anatomically correct, and it is not so they will pass muster as a real passenger in your vehicle when you use high-occupancy lanes. No, they are anatomically correct so that they can be used as a sex partner, a use to which the people of the community in which Lars lives appear to be oblivious.

Most guys in Lars's position would do everything in their power to keep Bianca's existence a secret. But not Lars: Lars is in love, and he wants the world to know. The weirdness begins one evening when Lars takes Bianca to meet his brother and sister-in-law. Lars wheels Bianca into their home in a wheelchair, which explains why she cannot walk, and he has other excuses for Bianca's inability to do the things that humans do. It is obvious to Lars's brother and to his wife that Bianca is a mannequin, but as it becomes increasingly apparent that Lars is dead serious in his treating Bianca as a living being, they refrain from confronting Lars and his delusion, and they play along with it. They decide to seek professional advice, and so they arrange for Lars and Bianca to visit their doctor on the pretense that Bianca does not look well.

It's not clear what specialty their doctor, Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson), pursues. If Dr. Dagmar specialized in family practice, I would have expected her to have relatively little expertise in psychiatry and promptly to have referred Lars to someone who did--maybe send him down to Madison to The Ed Gein Institute for the Seriously Weird. If Dr. Dagmar is a psychiatrist, how, I wondered, would such a small community support her practice? By the end of the film, it was apparent that this community is fertile ground for a psychiatrist. Whatever her specialty, Dr. Dagmar is not about to refer this case. Bianca, she informs Lars's brother and wife, has come into Lars's life for a reason, and everyone who loves Lars is going to have to help him work through it, which means indulging his delusion. Fortunately for Lars, everyone loves him.

The scene in Dr. Dagmar's office is a pivotal one, as how it plays out determines the direction the story takes. In retrospect, a number of possibilities come to mind that could have saved this film. For example, as the meeting in Dr. Dagmar's office ended, the camera could have panned to a corner of the room where a Rod Serlingesque character said to the audience: "Lars Lindstrom has a problem. He is in love with an anatomically-correct sex mannequin. In some communities this would make Lars the butt of jokes; an object of derision; or land him in a padded cell. But this is no ordinary community. This community is in... The Twilight Zone." Or the film could have headed into Dennis Potter territory by having the scene evolve into a musical number in which Lars, holding Bianca's hand, lip-syncs Patsy Cline's Crazy. Instead, we get absurdity after absurdity, all played straight, and with a PG rating in mind.

As Lars takes Bianca out in public and the people of the community learn of her and of Lars's problem, everyone, and I mean everyone, signs on to do his or her part to see that Lars's delusion is not threatened by reality. Soon the townspeople are inviting Bianca to social functions. Lars takes her to church and out for a night of bowling with his friends. You'd think there might be some unpleasant encounters, maybe a redneck-type at the bowling alley sipping from a bottle of PBR and taunting: "Hey, Lars, yer girl friend's a real doll. Har! Har!" But none of that happens. Everyone in town is really nice, really understanding, and really cool with Lars and Bianca as a couple. I guess that's because people in small towns are so tolerant, especially of something as innocent as one of the local boys dragging an anatomically-correct mannequin with him wherever he goes and insisting it's a real person. And especially when that boy is universally loved. Why does the community have so much affection for Lars? I haven't a clue.

Early-on in the film we meet one of Lars's coworkers, a cute, perky young lady who obviously has eyes for Lars. One need not be particularly insightful to figure out that by the film's end she will be Lars's real girl. But for that to happen (assuming this young lady draws the line at a ménage à mannequin), Bianca will have to be removed from the picture. And the only one who can effect that without threatening Lars's delusion is Lars himself. And so Bianca becomes ill, or so Lars claims, and her decline and death lead to some seriously absurd scenes. In one, Bianca is rushed to the hospital by paramedics. We see her being rolled down the corridor of the hospital on a gurney accompanied by Lars, Dr. Dagmar, and two paramedics, all looking concerned (perhaps for their acting careers). Here's an experiment that you should try. Pickup the phone, dial 911, and report that a member of your family is seriously ill and needs transport to the hospital. When the paramedics arrive, show them an anatomically-correct mannequin and say "here she is; she's really ill. Help her." I recommend not doing this without having an attorney on retainer. Bianca's death leads to the final absurdities: a funeral and burial. In his eulogy, the pastor tells a church filled with mourners, "Bianca taught us all something." No one snickers or rolls his eyes. Apparently, everyone in this community becomes delusional during the long, hard winters of the Upper Midwest.

This film did not work for me as comedy or as a fairytale or fantasy. The supporting cast is competent but Ryan Gosling, as Lars, leaves a lot to be desired. In fairness to Mr. Gosling, the role of Lars is one that only Andy Kaufman could have pulled off.


"Thought provoking "
I don't know if the purpose of this movie was to help de-stigmatization mental illness but I believe that it was a step forward in that direction. The movie focus on Lars and his girlfriend who is a doll. The community that he lives in goes out of their way to accept Lars's girlfriend and to help Lars heal from the death of his mother and the guilt that he feels from it.

Anyways I loved the move and bought it and have been passing it around the neighborhood.

"Very slow. If quirky for quirky's sake is your thing, then you'll like it"
This movie has a couple of "chuckle" moments, but as I watched it, I couldn't help but feel sad for the characters in this film. It reminded me a lot of a Christopher Guest film where you're watching unidimensional characters interact with one another in a desperate and feeble attempt to find happiness and acceptance.