Review: Lars & The Real Girl

I hadn’t heard much about Lars & The Real Girl since its release over a decade ago but I’ve seen it pop up from time to time on Top 10 lists, mostly around films that tackle mental illness, with Gosling career having picked up massively since then and with director Craig Gillespie having impressed me recently with I, Tonya, I figured I’d give it a shot.

Man I was not expecting how good this flick would turn out to be.

Set in small-town Wisconsin, the film follows Lars Lindstrom, a man suffering from severe social anxiety to the point where he tries to avoid all contact with people where possible, he lives in the converted garage of his childhood home while his brother Gus and his pregnant wife Karin stay in the main house with Karin constantly trying to have Lars have a meal with them in the house.

To their joy, Lars changes one day when he meets a girl over the internet and she’s come to meet him, only for that to turn to horror when they realise that she’s an inanimate ‘RealDoll’ named Bianca that Lars has personified and given an entire back-story to. Seeking medical help from family doctor Dagmer Berman, she’s tells them to pretend that Bianca is real and let Lars bring her in from weekly check-ups to try and find the root cause for his delusions. As the rest of the town start to learn about Bianca most are confused and disgusted, but due to their concern for Lars they keep up the charade and slowly the introverted Lars starts to find a place for himself in his town.

If you’ve brushed this movie off based on its premise then you’re missing the point about what this movie is trying to say about the dangers of loneliness and the necessity of friendship, Lars isn’t treated as crazy or dangerous, rather people are concerned about him and the unspoken agreement to help him allows this film to take on a much sweeter and more tolerant note, it’s an engaging story because it doesn’t cheapen its own premise, rather it plays right into it and makes it work like any other romance story.

Acting was one of the film’s strongest points with Gosling giving one of his best performances; I’m surprised how under the radar this has gotten cause it’s a role that even now feels completely out of his wheelhouse but still so perfectly fitting. Right from the start it’s clear to see that Lars has issues, he avoids talking to people to the point of utterly ignoring them, he struggles to look even his own family in the eye and he’s far too content in his solitude. The arrival of Bianca is a definite cause for concern with those closest to him due to the degree to which he’s gone so quickly – excusing away her lack of mobility with a wheelchair and lack of speech with being Dutch/Brazilian and not good with English – but Gosling makes Lars so endearing, so pure in his love for Bianca that you do find yourself actually enjoying watching the two of them. A lesser actor might not have been able to pull off this type of performance but Gosling does it so effortlessly, playing the harmless sap so easily that you could almost forget his more recent tough roles in Drive and Blade Runners.

More than just endearing you to this oddball character, Gosling captures the layered nature of Lars, never going too far with his mental illness but touching on it just enough so you know it’s there. Through his talks with Dagmar we get a sense of a troubled childhood following the death of his father with a distant father and a runaway brother that contributed towards his inability to communicate with people, even feeling burned by skin-on-skin contact. The moments where Lars lets his guard down only to try and hide himself away again are difficult to watch because you care about him and want to see him find a place in the town but it’s a tough job and one that requires help to see him through.

To the film’s credit there’s no real villain in the story, sure people round town are confused at first but the outpouring of support is the key element to this story, this is tolerance at its purest, accepting people for who they are, not what they do. And that’s not a pun, Lars and Bianca is a strictly puritan relationship. From wise elderly women like Mrs Gruner who see the good Bianca is doing for a lost soul like Lars, to younger, more perverse folk like Lars co-worker Kurt who primarily thinks of the sex angle but never judges Lars for having a RealDoll girlfriend, the whole town is filled with people who are welcoming to Bianca into their town and it’s honestly such a wholesome experience to watch.

One of the bigger cast members with Lars co-worker Margot who quite clearly had a thing for Lars but couldn’t get past his outer shell to have him notice, after the initial shock of seeing Lars choose a piece of plastic over her she quickly becomes one of Bianca’s strongest supporters. She’s not perfect and during one moment she does forget that Lars is in a relationship but her gentle heart and easy-to-like attitude make her too adorable not to root for. Similarly – though in a very different manner, Dr Dagmer Berman (Patricia Clarkson) made a place for herself within the story by acting as the bridge between Lars life with Bianca and his life with the rest of the world, she had a tough but fair way of psychology, pushing Lars towards moving on from Bianca but never putting him into a situation he didn’t want to be in. I kinda wish there was more with her simply because the scenes with her and Lars were a strong insight into how someone with the mindset of Lars worked and was able to fit their reality into the real world.

Rounding out the cast was Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer as Gus and Karin respectively, I did like these two but I feel there was a lull in the second act where they didn’t factor into the film as much as they did in the first. Both being the first point of contact for Bianca’s introduction into the world they approached the news in different manners, Karin – already worrying about Lars – tries to keep up the charade of Bianca being real while Gus doesn’t want to admit that his brother is crazy and tries to make him see that Bianca is just a doll but in doing so he’s forced to look back on his own hand in Lars’ troubled upbringing. Both were solid characters and their growth into accepting Bianca was key for Lars’ development, but when the focus shifted to the townsfolk it did feel like they ended up with less to do.

One of the key elements that Gillespie includes with this story is complete faith in its oddball concept, RealDolls have a perverted reputation, not unwarranted but definitely something that can turn people off to this film without knowing what it’s about. To that effect Gillespie ensures that the whole film has this sweet, endearing nature to it, it’s pure for lack of a better term with Lars and Bianca both being devout Christians who regularly attend Church and are welcomed into the community. There’s sincerity to the whole thing that really sells the concept, in the wrong hands you’d get a badly timed sex joke or an inappropriate comments and while there are sexual references – Karin has a shocking realisation at just how ‘anatomically correct’ Bianca is – the main drive of the film is this sweet, almost childlike love between Lars and Bianca.

This is also mirrored in how the film evolves, during the first half it’s humorous to watch everyone’s reaction to Bianca and even as audience members just seeing her in regular situations is funny in its own way, but the further the film progresses the less funny it becomes and there’s a greater emphasis on drama, whether it’s Lars and Gus having a long overdue heart-to-heart, Lars and Bianca’s one and only fight or the entire finale which hit me a lot harder than I was expecting, Gillespie doesn’t hold back from the emotional weight and that’s to his credit, had the film been jokes about Bianca being a RealDoll all the way through it would’ve gotten old fast and it wouldn’t have legitimised the relationship between her and Lars. It hits hard but it’s all the better for it.

I feel safe calling Lars & The Real Girl underrated and worth checking out, especially if you’re looking for something to remind you how good the world can be. Between the confidence in its own concept, it’s wholesome love story and its strong acting with Gosling’s loving, troubled and endearing Lars being a highlight of both the film and his own career, there’s a lot more to this than you might expect but it’s absolutely worth finding it all out for yourself.

8.5/10