Lars and the Real Girl, not unlike 127 Hours, is a film with a reputation that precedes it. 127 Hours became known as "that movie where the guy cuts off his own arm" and Lars, to those who have heard of it, is probably known as "that movie where the guy falls in love with a sex doll".
And like 127 Hours, Lars has a deeper message. Human beings are unpredictable. They have scary and confusing emotions. Interacting with them can be a chore. But the rewards of being part of a community is worth the time, commitment, and sacrifices of dealing with other people
Unfortunately, in order to get this message across, Lars and the Real Girl asks its audience to suspend its disbelief A LOT.
Now, I know that the argument can be made that Lars fits squarely into a category of films inhabited by fare such as Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Garden State, and even the films of Wes Anderson: movies that are ostensibly set in "reality", yet do not quite resemble the world as we know it. Instead, in this magical world of quirky comedies, people are much kinder and understanding of eccentricities than they are in our actual world. People say profound things and make grand gestures for love that would seem insane and unbalanced in the real world. Lars and the Real Girl takes place in this idealized vision of the world. But I was never able to fully accept what the film wanted me to accept. Let me explain (spoilers ahead!):
Lars (played by Ryan Gosling) is an odd loner of a young man. It's all too common to diagnose fictional characters, but it seems clear that Lars is somewhere on the autism spectrum--probably someone with high-functioning Asperger Syndrome. He prefers to be alone, hates to be touched, doesn't read other people's emotions and body language well, etc. Yet he holds down an office job (where he has to share a cubicle with an annoying coworker) and attends church. It seems as though Lars has the hardest time dealing with the people closest to him--i.e. his brother and sister-in-law, who have to wheedle him into joining them for dinner. But maybe this has to do with Lars's sad past: his mother died when he was a baby and his brother left home as soon as he could, leaving Lars with his depressed and lonely father. Ok, so far so good. Pretty believable.
Then Lars decides to order a sex doll online and begins to treat her as if she is real. Her name is Bianca, she's in a wheelchair, she's from Brazil, etc. It's never clear whether Lars actually believes Bianca is real or is just playacting. But if he actually believes she is real, then that puts Lars in a whole other category of mental illness. One that wouldn't make for a very fun movie.
Lars's brother is shocked, embarrassed, and terrified when he finds out about Bianca. He and his wife take Lars to see a psychiatrist (Patricia Clarkson), who tells them "Bianca is in town for a reason" and to basically play along until Lars has worked out whatever issues he needs to work out. The sister-in-law decides to humor Lars, although the brother still thinks Lars needs to be institutionalized. But soon, the whole town is going along with it (this film takes place in an unnamed Northern/Midwestern small town where everyone knows everyone else's business). The town accepts Bianca as a real out-of-town visitor and even invite her to parties and offer her a volunteer position at the hospital. Soon enough, Bianca's social life is busier than Lars's!
While I could buy that Lars's closest friends and family might pretend Bianca is real, by the time the entire town is attending Bianca's "funeral" (after Lars works out his issues, Bianca mysteriously gets sick and dies!), including a burial in the local cemetery, I was rolling my eyes.
The other thing that I found unrealistic is that at the end of the film, it's implied that Lars now has a real, human love interest in the form of Margo: a flighty, cute girl from Lars' office who waits patiently for Lars to be ready to date actual women. Call me callous, call me cynical, but there is no way a girl would knowingly date a guy whose last big relationship was with a human-sized sex toy. I mean, should Lars even be worrying about dates at this point in his life? Shouldn't he be continuing therapy and slowly integrating into the community before he tries to have a romantic relationship? I mean, you don't go from paddling in the kiddie pool to jumping off the high dive in a day!
I guess when it comes right down to it, I found the premise of the film to be amusing and intriguing, but unbearably shaky. It is nice that the filmmakers were able to keep Lars PG-13. I can only imagine the dark corners other directors could have taken such a film. Instead of a gross movie about a weirdo with a sex doll fetish, we get an uplifting, light film about the difficulties and struggles of forming and maintaining relationships with other human beings. And although I would totally watch a movie about a weirdo with a sex doll fetish, it was nice to see the lighter side of things for once.
3 out of 5 stars
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