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Created May 22, 2008 01:22AM PST • Edited May 22, 2008 01:22AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   Lars (Gosling) stays to himself as much as he can. There is no one in his life aside from his brother, Gus (Schneider) and Gus’ wife, Karin (Mortimer). Lars’ and Gus’ parents have been dead for quite some time now. After their mother died, their father became very secluded and to himself. Gus and even more so Karin, see this in Lars now. Karin is very worried about him, thinking that he must be far too lonely. It is obvious that Lars is lonely, but he also doesn’t like certain human interactions that most people do. For example, he describes hugging as a burn through your body. At work, he gets exposed to a website of love dolls. He even ends up ordering one who he names Bianca, that becomes his new girlfriend. Lars acts as if this is a living breathing person. If anyone didn’t acknowledge Bianca as a person, he wouldn’t believe them. Lars even has a full back story of Bianca’s life, her beliefs, and who she is. He has convinced himself completely and Bianca becomes his main concern.
   Now Karin and Gus were already concerned about Lars, but they simply don’t know what to do with this. So they take him to a psychiatrist, telling Lars that Bianca is sick and they need to go to the doctor. He ends up having to come every week to talk to the doctor supposedly because Bianca needs weekly treatments. The psychiatrist tells Karin and Gus that they need to go along with Lars about Bianca and to treat her as if she is real. This is unimaginable for them to act this way, but it turns out that they really don’t have any choice. Lars is going to believe what he wants to and telling him otherwise is just going him more resistant towards Gus and Karin. So not only do they begin to act like Bianca is a real girlfriend, but they convince their entire community to do the same too. Bianca even starts going to church and is elected to be one of the school board members. When Bianca starts to have a life of her own, this scares Lars. He thinks he might lose her. However, he starts spending time with a co-worker, Margo (Garner), who has been dropping hints at Lars for quite some time, before Bianca was ever in the picture. Lars enjoys spending time with her, but he doesn’t want to ever hurt Bianca and that is where his loyalty lies.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Lars and the Real Girl’s success relied on Ryan Gosling’s performance almost completely. As he has done countless times before, he gave a sensational performance, giving this movie, with so many unrealistic circumstances, such believability. Of course, we can see that Bianca is just a doll, but because of Gosling’s head on conviction, we are in the spot of everyone else in the town, giving him the benefit of the doubt because we have so much belief in the character of Lars. I don’t think I have ever seen a film with Gosling that I didn’t like. So many of his films and characters are so different from each other, showing his range and overall expanding acting abilities. When The Notebook was such a success he could have just stuck to the bigger budgeted films as I am sure his performance as Noah, could have given him many opportunities to do that. He didn’t though, he stuck to his independent roots. Even more important than this though, Gosling chooses to continuously choose interesting and different material, always challenging himself. Previously, I thought his performance in The Believer was his best yet. It is really hard to compare his acting in Lars and the Real Girl, as a shy lonely man who has delusions of a plastic doll being his girlfriend to The Believer where he was a racist new-Nazi, who was very intelligent but almost completely full of hate. They are just so different, but both show so much power, Lars and Real Girl just shows this immense strength through great subtly and the emotions that Lars can only express through Bianca. Everyone in this film was thoroughly charming. This is especially the case with Kelli Garner. She is a very sweet and patient girl that continuously puts herself out there for Lars. In most cases, if there was a guy you really liked that you kept approaching, yet were shut down so he could be with a plastic doll rather than you, there would just be frustration, hurt feelings, and rejection that could make it an even messier situation. Garner as Margo is completely understanding and just wants to be there for Lars in anyway that she can. Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer as Gus and Karin add a lot to the film. Their characters grow with Lars’. The situation puts a lot of stress on them, especially for Gus. He feels responsible for what Lars is going through. Gus and Karin are living in the house that both Gus and Lars inherited from their parents, while Lars is living in the garage. Even though this is Lars decision to do this, Gus feels like he has just been too caught up in his own life and has really shown that he cares about Lars.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    Lars and the Real Girl shows a very interesting alternative approach to mental or psychological illness. Rather than telling them that they are wrong, why not try going along with them? Lars ordered this doll because he needed it. Being able to pick everything about her and to create who she was put him in control. In relationships this is something very rare for majority of people. It is pointed out that Lars made Bianca his girlfriend, because he really needed her. When it gets to the point where he doesn’t need her anymore, he can end it. It was really important for him to work through this time and to have so many people supporting him. It is really amazing how accepting the community was to him. This just shows how much they all cared for Lars, and that he really wasn’t nearly as alone as he thought he was. Also for someone as private and to himself as Lars, he was able to live through Bianca. Everything that Bianca said, did, believed, had been through, and everything that was presently happening to her was all representing Lars and his experiences and emotions.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

    The most provacative thing is the usage of the sex doll, but Lars uses it in a completely different way. He even has Bianca sleep in a different room at night, since that is what he considers to be more appropriate.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    Although, the acceptance and help Lars is given may require you to stretch your belief a little, ordering this doll and making it his world, may not be as far as a stretch as you might think. Lars and the Real Girl took an obscure but ultimately realistic situation to show feelings and a desperate need for understanding that was struggling to be heard. The film has such powerful acting that built on the well developed and very interesting story to give the audience an inevitable understanding of not only Lars and his situation, but also the acknowledgment that everyone has different struggles that they must deal with in their own ways; just because one way may seem weird to a conventional one, it doesn’t make it wrong.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.2

23. Biological Glib 1.2

24. Physical Glib 1.2