Lars And The Real Girl

 

“Lars asked us not to wear black today.
He did so to remind us that this is no ordinary funeral.
We are here to celebrate Bianca’s extraordinary life. From her wheelchair,
Bianca reached out and touched us all, in ways we could never have imagines.
She was a teacher. She was a lesson in courage.
 And Bianca loved us all. Especially Lars. Especially him.”

IDDA’S SCORE: ***1/2

Lars And The Real Girl is ultimately a movie about a guy with issues that begins to love a plastic sex doll.

And yet there is nothing about it that makes it corny, off-color or insulting. In fact it’s a sweet movie that never crosses the line.
There is not one sex joke regarding the doll or a bitter comment that could have made it all wrong.

We’re not asked to feel for Lars Lindstrom but just to let him be.
Because it’s only by doing so that we can appreciate the delicacy of his nature and be part of the world he sees.
He is so kind and compassionate that by the end of the movie I had too, developed affection towards that inanimate piece of plastic.

The way he relates to Bianca is so pure, genuine and romantic that it almost brings her to life and makes you wish she could love Lars back.
But in fact she does.She does it through the love of his brother who has realized how alone he had left him for years, his wife Karin who grows into being a newly mom and the whole community that learns a lesson about diversity and, as the priest says in his sermon, ultimately courage.
Two thumbs up for Ryan Gosling who delivers a performance that is accurate and yet so delicate that it makes you wish he would have done more movies like this and spared us some of his recent Refn collaborations…

Movie runs for 106 minutes which is more than enough to develop affection for Lars and his family and not be bored by this fairy tale from the real world.

Sometimes people forget how simple love can be and Lars And The Real Girl is a great proof of that.

PLOT

Watching this movie I was reminded of one of those fairy tales settled in some place dispersed in the middle of nowhere, with only one main road, surrounded by snow and in which fashion is still dictated by flannel pyjamas.

When you first get a glimpse of Lars’s house, no information is given regarding its location.
I imagined it to be some cold region of the United States, in one of those towns that are cut out from the rest of the world and have so few inhabitants that they could all be gathered in a Wall Mart store.

Lars is a shy, ordinary young man who lives in a garage close to the house of his brother Gus and sister-in-law Karin.
He is genuine, kind and helpful and very much loved by his family and the community, although he prefers to be alone in his small room rather than being hugged and hosted at people’s parties, reason why he often refuses to the point of running away from Karin just to avoid having breakfast with them.

He has an office job and is totally capable of taking care of his persona.
We learn throughout the movie that his mother died giving birth and his lonely and depressed father raised him until his death.
He has friends and acquaintances and even a slightly childish young colleague who shows much attention for him. And yet he does not seek other’s company.

But then comes Bianca.

Bianca is the girl of his dreams: she’s beautiful, educated, kind, quiet and not used to the whole kissing-and-hugging that he despises so much.
And that’s because Bianca is not a real person; she’s a plastic sex doll that Lars ordered off the Internet.
But in his delusional mind she’s real and perfect.

And this is what makes Lars And The Real Girl such an extraordinary movie.

Lars’ family is shocked and puzzled at first sight of this sex artefact treated as if she were a real person.
Lars has all figured out in his mind: the reason why she’s forced on a wheel chair and her incapability to eat or dress herself.

Doctor Dagmar, probably my favorite character in the movie, suggests that his family should too act as if she was real, giving her the chance to talk to Lars while Bianca goes through weekly therapeutically sessions.Lars has to come out of his fantasy on his own, since Bianca seems to be a projection of his own personality and traumas.

 

The whole community ends up playing along with them and Bianca is treated so much like a real person that everybody is comfortable having her around at parties, in church and even volunteering at the local hospital.

Until one day when Lars makes her leave just has she had come, just in time for the last snow to melt.