Monday, June 09, 2008

What I watched: "Lars and the Real Girl" on DVD

I'm not normally one to post a movie review, but "Lars and the Real Girl" is such a sweet movie, I have to talk about it. It's not cloying or obvious. It's sweet in the way that most big budget Hollywood love stories starring big name Hollywood Beautiful People can never be (not that the people in this movie aren't beautiful; they just aren't Beautiful).

Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, a shy, wounded 27-year-old who seems to be afraid of getting too involved with others. As the filmmakers say during a making of feature on the DVD, Lars is wobbling. He can either go over the edge or he can join life. Because he doesn't relate to people he orders a Real Doll from the internet. When his family finds out he bought the doll -- there's never any hint that he bought the doll for its intended use as a sex toy -- they worry about his mental state. Lars believes (or seems to believe) "Bianca" is a real girl. Then something amazing happens, instead of laughing at Lars as his brother predicts, the community embraces him and treat Bianca like the real girl Lars believes her to be. What if something like that could really happen? What if everyone could be compassionate toward everyone else rather than laughing, staring or running away? We might learn something about ourselves. We might learn something about the people we love. We might join life.

I highly recommend this movie. I loved it and I'm extremely cynical.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cynical? Perhaps.
But not so much as to miss those things that are worth appreciating.

I've been meaning to see this too.

Pammeey said...

See it. It really did melt my cold black heart.