Lars is a determined loner. His sister-in-law literally has to tackle him to get him to come to dinner. He dodges would be friends with a goofy smile and awkward silence. Lars wants very badly to be left alone, if only people would let him. His solution is to order Bianca online. She's one of those sex dolls that aspires to look real. Apparently she's fully equipped for whatever kinky stuff Lars might want to try with her. Except he doesn't want any of that. He introduces her as a parapalegic immigrant and moves her in with his family.
Lars treats Bianca with exquisite decency and respect. What he doesn't notice is the baffled stares of his family and community. But those stares turn to affectionate smiles as the community decides to indulge Lars' fantasy. They treat Bianca with the same decency Lars does and essentially adopt her into the community.
The beauty of Lars and the Real Girl is that it takes an absurd idea and treats it as completely real. Yes, there is some acknowledgement of the absurdity of treating Bianca as a real person, but the film itself never winks at the audience. It does not make fun of Lars. It views him with an unjudging eye, recognizing his problems but not looking down on him for them. The real charm of the film is that the town does the same. They treat Bianca as if real, because they care about Lars and want him to get better.
All the caring has the odd effect of bringing Bianca alive for the audience as well. When we hear bad news about Bianca, the reaction is a lump in the throat, followed quickly by feeling silly for getting choked up about a doll. After all, she's not real, right? Don't even get me started on the follow up thought about none of it being real because it's a movie. That's the amazing thing about this movie, it carefully balances everything to come up with sweet story about a troubled young man figuring out how to make himself better. The list of things that could go wrong and turn this movie into an unmitigated disaster is long.
Ryan Gosling faces an unenviable task with this role. It would be all too easy to make Lars a joke and mock him mercilessly. But Gosling plays him as a guy a few degrees off straight arrow and never gives any indication that he understands he's playing with a doll. He seems unnaturally happy for a guy who spends a lot of time sitting along staring at the wall. Simply not making this character the butt of jokes is worthy of praise. Emily Mortimer plays his sister-in-law and her expression upon meeting Bianca is pure genius. Only slightly behind her on that scale is Paul Schneider, playing Lars' brother Gus. He gets the fun job of being the only one to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation.
The movie has plenty of laughs but they don't come at the expense of Lars. Virtually all of them are off the reactions of others to Lars and Bianca. But all of those double takes are replaced with genuine affection for a guy trying to make himself better, no matter how weird the method. The reasons for Lars being so afraid of human contact are never totally clear but his cure is clear enough. Bianca provides him a faithful companion who never talks back or questions his behavior. She doesn't judge him. And because the town follows suit, Lars starts towards a healthier mind.
I feel like I'm repeating myself here but the movie is a minor marvel in the way it so carefully walks the line to avoid becoming cheap cruel humor or shameless tear jerking. It's a genuinely sweet film that so deftly tells its odd story that you don't realize you've bought into it until the end when you suddenly realizethat Bianca is as meaningful a character as any of the live ones.
- John Shea
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