Lars and the Real Girl

Infobox Film
name = Lars and the Real Girl


image_size =
caption = Original poster
director = Craig Gillespie
producer = Sarah Aubrey
John Cameron
Sidney Kimmel
writer = Nancy Oliver
narrator =
starring = Ryan Gosling
Emily Mortimer
Paul Schneider
Kelli Garner
Patricia Clarkson
music = David Torn
cinematography = Adam Kimmel
editing = Tatiana S. Riegel
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = October 12, 2007 USA
runtime = 106 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget = $12 million
gross = $10,368,761 (Worldwide)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.larsandtherealgirl-themovie.com
amg_id = 1:353041
imdb_id = 0805564

"Lars and the Real Girl" is a 2007 American dramedy film directed by Craig Gillespie. The screenplay, by Nancy Oliver, focuses on a shy, lonely, socially inept young man who develops a relationship with a life-sized, anatomically-correct doll he orders online.

Plot

Lars Lindstrom lives in a room adjacent to the garage behind the house he and his brother Gus inherited from their father. His pregnant sister-in-law Karin's persistent attempts to lure him into the house for a family meal are usually rebuffed, and on the rare occasions he accepts, their conversation is stilted and he seems eager to leave as soon as he can. The young man finds it difficult to interact with or relate to his family, co-workers, or fellow parishioners in the church he regularly attends.

One day Lars happily announces to Gus and Karin he has a visitor he met via the Internet, a wheelchair-bound missionary of Brazilian and Danish descent named Bianca. The two are startled to discover Bianca is in fact a lifelike doll Lars ordered from an adult website. Concerned about his mental health, they convince Lars to take Bianca to Dagmar, the family doctor who is also a psychologist. Dagmar diagnoses Bianca with low blood pressure and advises Lars he needs to bring her in for weekly treatments, during which she will attempt to analyze him and get to the root of his behavior. She urges Gus and Karin to assist with Lars' therapy by treating Bianca as if she were a real woman.

As time passes, Lars begins to introduce Bianca as his girlfriend to his co-workers and various townspeople. Aware of the situation, everyone reacts to the doll as if she were real, and Bianca soon finds herself involved in volunteer programs, getting a makeover from the local beautician, and working part-time as a model in a clothing store. Due to their acceptance of Bianca, Lars soon finds himself interacting more with people. At work, he takes notice of Margo, and when she reveals she has broken up with her boyfriend, Lars agrees to go bowling with her while Bianca attends a school board meeting. The two spend a pleasant evening, although Lars is quick to remind Margo he could never cheat on Bianca. She replies she would never expect that of him and tells him she hopes one day to find a man as faithful as he.

One morning, Lars discovers Bianca is unresponsive, and she's rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Her prognosis isn't good, and Lars announces Bianca would like to be brought home. News of her illness spreads through town, and everyone whose life has been touched by Bianca brings flowers or food to the Lindstrom home. Gus and Karin suggest Lars and Bianca join them for a visit to the lake. While the couple is hiking, Lars kisses Bianca for the first time, just before she dies.

Bianca is given a funeral all the townspeople attend. After Bianca is buried, Lars and Margo linger at the gravesite and, having come to terms with past traumas, ready to accept adult responsibilities, and filled with newfound self-confidence, he asks her if she would like to take a walk with him, an invitation she happily accepts.

Production

In "A Real Leading Lady", a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter Nancy Oliver reveals the inspiration for her script was an actual website, RealDoll.com, which is featured prominently in the film.

The film was shot in Alton, Elora, King Township, Toronto, Uxbridge, and Whitevale, all located in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007 before going into limited release in the US on October 12, 2007. It initially opened on seven screens in New York City and Los Angeles and earned $90,418 on its opening weekend. It later expanded to 321 theaters and remained in release for 147 days, earning $5,956,480 domestically and $4,412,281 in foreign markets for a worldwide box office total of $10,368,761. [ [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=larsandtherealgirl.htm BoxOfficeMojo.com] ] The film was featured at the Austin Film Festival, the Heartland Film Festival, the Turin Film Festival, the Glasgow Film Festival, and the Las Palmas Film Festival.

Principal cast

*Ryan Gosling ..... Lars Lindstrom
*A Doll ..... Bianca
*Emily Mortimer ..... Karin Lindstrom
*Paul Schneider ..... Gus Lindstrom
*Kelli Garner ..... Margo
*Patricia Clarkson ..... Dagmar
*R. D. Reid ..... Reverend Bock

Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 120 reviews, [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10007394-lars_and_the_real_girl/ Rotten Tomatoes.com] ] and on Metacritic, the film has an average score of 70 out of 100, based on 32 reviews. [ [http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/larsandtherealgirl Metacritic.com] ]

Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" observed, "The film ... wisely never goes for even one moment that could be interpreted as smutty or mocking ... There are so many ways [it] could have gone wrong that one of the film's fascinations is how adroitly it sidesteps them. Its weapon is absolute sincerity ... It has a kind of purity to it." [ [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071018/REVIEWS/710180304/1023 "Chicago Sun-Times", October 19, 2007] ]

Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" called the film "a gentle comedy, offbeat but never cute, never lewd and never going for shortcut laughs that might diminish character." [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/DD0FSROFN.DTL "San Francisco Chronicle", October 19, 2007] ]

Manohla Dargis of the "New York Times" said, "American self-nostalgia is a dependable racket, and if the filmmakers had pushed into the realm of nervous truth, had given Lars and the town folk sustained shadows, not just cute tics and teary moments, it might have worked. Instead the film is palatable audience bait of average accomplishment that superficially recalls the plain style of Alexander Payne, but without any of the lacerating edges or moral ambiguity." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/movies/12lars.html?ref=movies "New York Times", October 12, 2007] ]

Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" described it as "the sweetest, most innocent, most completely enjoyable film around," "a film whose daring and delicate blend of apparent irreconcilables will sweep you off your feet if you're not careful ... The creators of this film were fiercely determined not to go so much as a millimeter over the line into sentiment, tawdriness or mockery. It's the rare film that is the best possible version of itself, but "Lars" fits that bill." [ [http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/radio/cl-et-lars12oct12,0,887414.story "Los Angeles Times", October 12, 2007] ]

Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" awarded the film three out of four stars, calling it "an offbeat comedy that plays as if Preston Sturges came back to life and collaborated with the Coen Brothers on an updated version of the Jimmy Stewart film "Harvey". He added the script "eschews cheap laughs for character-driven humanist comedy, and is sensitively directed by Craig Gillespie." [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/10122007/entertainment/movies/midwestern_love_for_dummies.htm "New York Post", October 12, 2007] ]

Alissa Simon of "Variety" stated, "Craig Gillespie's sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's "Lake Wobegon" tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality ... what's fresh and charming is the way the characters surrounding the protagonist also grow as they help him through his crisis." [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117934677.html?categoryid=2880&cs=1&p=0 "Variety", September 11, 2007] ]

Awards and nominations

*Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominee)
*Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Ryan Gosling, nominee)
*Satellite Award for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy (nominee)
*Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Ryan Gosling, winner)
*Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Emily Mortimer, nominee)
*Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominee)
*Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Ryan Gosling, nominee)
*Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay (nominee)
*National Board of Review Award for Best Original Screenplay (winner, tied with "Juno")
*Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (Ryan Gosling, nominee)
*BFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best Writer (nominee)
*Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (Ryan Gosling, nominee)
*Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Director (nominee)

References

External links

* [http://www.larsandtherealgirl-themovie.com/ Official website]
*imdb title|id=0805564|title=Lars and the Real Girl
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10007394-lars_and_the_real_girl|title=Lars and the Real Girl
*metacritic film|id=larsandtherealgirl|title=Lars and the Real Girl
*mojo title|id=larsandtherealgirl|title=Lars and the Real Girl
*amg movie|id=1:353041|title=Lars and the Real Girl
* [http://www.realdoll.com/ RealDoll.com]