Lars and the Real Girl Review

Okay, so I know I am a sports writer but I enjoy my share of movies. My tastes range from, well about anything. This brings me to an interesting movie, to say the least, I watched the other night: Lars and the Real Girl.

The movie is about a socially awkward man Lars, who is played by Ryan Gosling of The Notebook fame. Lars is a mid-to-late 20 something man who works an office job but is very quiet and keeps to himself. Later on, it’s found out Lars is socially inept because his mother passed away giving birth to him and his father was always sad because of this and raised Lars and his brother, Gus, alone.

At his job, Lars has attracted the eye of a new coworker, Margo, who is an eccentric young woman. Lars notices this but is too shy to say anything to her and basically ignores her advances.

Lars’ sister-in-law, Karin, tries to get Lars to break out of his shell and be more outgoing, but it doesn’t seem to have an effect on Lars and only pushes him away more.

Lars then does something completely unexpected. He purchases a life-size atomically correct doll that he dresses up and thinks is a real person who he calls Bianca. He treats her as if she is real and he can hear everything she is saying and reacts to it and is madly in love with her.

When Lars first brings Bianca over for supper with Gus and Karin, they are taken aback at first and don’t know what to think. Karin decides right away to go with it to help Lars, but Gus thinks he should put his brother in for mental treatment.

Since Bianca has a medical problem only Lars knows about, Karin and Gus talk him into going to doctor Dagmar, who is not only a doctor but also a psychiatrist. Dagmar talks to Lars about Bianca and about Lars as well.

Dagmar comes to the conclusion Lars is suffering a delusion and will continue to think Bianca is real as long as he wants her to be real. Dagmar tells Gus and Karin to go along with it because it could do more damage to Lars if they try and tell him Bianca isn’t real.

Gus and Karin then go on to tell their friends about Bianca and Lars, and at first their friends are appalled, but one friend points out other people’s faults and says they should all help Lars throughout this important time in his life.

Lars proceeds to bring Bianca all around town and at first people are shocked as they see Lars wheel Bianca around in the wheel chair she needs, she her disease doesn’t allow her to walk obviously. Margo is just as shocked as everyone else at first, given the crush she has on Lars.

But everyone gets used to Bianca and Lars and even start to treat her like she is a real person as well. This helps Lars feel like he isn’t as socially awkward anymore. He finds the courage to go out more with Bianca. Also, Lars starts to develop quite the friendship with Margo as the movie goes along.

I won’t give away the ending so you will have to watch the movie.

I will say I enjoyed the movie. It was very interesting about a topic some might call taboo. Ryan Gosling did a great job as Lars, portraying a socially awkward character. The supporting cast was great as well with a couple of maybe up and coming actresses in Margo (Kelli Garner) and Karin (Emily Mortimer). Both actresses do a great job displaying the emotion and enthusiasm necessary that Lars needs in his life.

The movie was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing. I agree with the nomination because it is a tough topic to write about. Lars and the Real Girl is worth watching because you feel for Lars’ character throughout the movie and you hope the experience is good for him and his family. It’s definitely a movie you will have to rent for the summer.

4 out of 5 stars. Straight from my Netflix account.

———-Justin Rust