The Cynical Critic

Alright, I got a nice little review for those of you out there that are interested. Today I’ll be taking a look at the movie, “Lars and the Real Girl”. Surprisingly, I ended up liking this movie quite a bit. Anyway, let’s get started and take a look at this film.

Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Fracture) stars in this semi-sweet comedy about a man who finds love within a plastic cased “love doll”. Emily Mortimer plays the part of the lead actress, and Lars’ sister in law. She gives a stirring performance throughout most of the film, as does Gosling. More on this later.
The movie starts off with letting the viewer get a taste of Lars’ character. On first glance he seems like the normal person. He lives next door to his brother and sister in law, has an office job, and goes to church on Sunday. For the most part, Lars seems to be a quiet fellow who keeps to himself. Eventually, Lars finds out about a site where he can create his own “woman”, and has one shipped to his house.

After his new girlfriend arrives, Lars brings her over to his brother’s house, and at first they are quite shocked with Lars’ new girl. Eventually, they end up going along with it on doctor’s orders, and so does the rest of the town, thus is the basic premise of the movie.

The movie itself seems to be broken up into two halves. The first half, seems to deal with Lars’ “problem” rather lightly, and a number of laughs arise from this. The majority of the comedy often comes from awkward or silent moments, when certain characters don’t know how to react to Bianca (the name of the doll). Also, more laughs generally arrive as the townspeople become more and more accepted with Bianca, and as a result she basically becomes a part of every one’s life. Now, it should be mentioned that the comedy in this movie isn’t the type of comedy you may find in say a movie like Borat, or an Adam Sandler type film. It’s definitely a type of comedy that you have to watch for to actually laugh at, and even then you may not find it all that funny. Regardless, I did find this movie to be rather humorous.

The other half of the movie seems to be much more emotional, and really fairs more on the side of a Drama rather than a Comedy type movie. As Lars condition seems to grow worse, the viewer really gets a look at the type of person he is, and as a result it creates an emotional bond between the two. At this point, the movie really tries to focus on bringing out level of connection the characters in the movie seem to have, which in my opinion, works quite well. This half of the movie really seems to pull the viewer in, as well as possibly tug on their heart strings.

I guess while we are discussing the characters, now would be a good time to talk about the acting in this film. Gosling’s performance, to say the least, is well, great. It really is. He ended up getting an Academy Award nomination for it, which is fair, to say the least. He truly plays the part of some one who has some serious mental issues very well. He also does a great job of convincing the viewer that “Bianca” is actually alive. In fact, their are a number of powerful scenes where he is talking to her, that it almost seems like she is actually human.

Emily Mortimer’s acting is in this flick is also something not to be sneered at. She gives a great performance playing the part of the caregiver/ person concerned about Lars. I also feel that the chemistry between Mortimer and Gosling works quite well. Their are a number of scenes with them together that are down right powerful. Overall, she makes her character extremely real.

In the end, Lars and the Real Girl is a funny, albeit emotionally powerful movie, that truly shines with the addition of some great acting. If you are a fan of Ryan Gosling, or if you are at least just halfway interested in seeing what would happen if some one decided to date a sex doll, then I suggest checking this film out. Either way, Lars and the Real Girl is a really good movie, and it deserves credit for Gosling’s excellent performance.

7.8/10

Editor’s Note: I was mistaken about Gosling being nominated for his performance. The film was nominated for an Oscar, but it was for screenplay, not Ryan’s acting. I apologize for this mistake. On a side note, it seriously pisses me off that Gosling went unnoticed in his performance in this movie…