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LARS AND THE REAL GIRL Send This Review to a Friend
Ryan Gosling plays Lars Linstrom, clearly a nut case, who has trouble communicating and is reclusive, save for a job that he occupies. One day he orders a life-size doll from an internet site, and he makes her his companion,
At first his brother and sister-in-law are aghast, but gradually they humor him and treat the doll as if she were real. Eventually the whole small-town community responds the same way as Lars takes the doll everywhere. Nobody tells him what a flake he is.
Kelli Garner plays Margo, who is sweet on Lars, but how can he fall for her without being disloyal to his doll? Every problem has a solution, and how all this is worked out to get Lars focused on a real live doll is developed in the screenplay by Nancy Oliver.
Director Craig Gillespie makes certain that the tall tale comes across as a cozy look at how people try to understand the kook in their midst. The mood is that of a fairy tale.
But the whole situation is ridiculously absurd, despite the talent of Gosling, Garner, and Patricia Clarkson, who serves as Lars’ understanding psychiatrist.
What the film needs is some jolting attention to what Lars may be doing in his bedroom with his inert love. Of course, that would make it a different picture, but at least closer to the truth and more believable. An MGM and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment release.
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