Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Lars and the Real Girl

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 81 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama
Written by: Nancy Oliver
Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 12, 2007
DVD: April 15, 2008
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sex-related content
Starring Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Kelli Garner, and Paul Schneider
Lars and the Real Girl is the touching, amusing, and humorous story about a man whose emotional baggage has kept him from fully embracing life. After years of what is almost solitude, Lars invites Bianca, a friend he met on the Internet, to visit him. He introduces Bianca to his brother Gus and his wife Karen and they are stunned. They don't know what to say to Lars or Bianca--because she is a life-size doll, not a real person, and he is treating her as if she is alive. They consult the family doctor, who explains that this is a delusion he's created--for what reason, she doesn't yet know, but they should all go along with it. What follows is an emotional journey for Lars and the people around him. (Kimmel International)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Mr. Woodcock
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
It's nothing less than a miracle that the director, Craig Gillespie, and the writer, Nancy Oliver, have been able to make such an endearing, intelligent and tender comedy from a premise that, in other hands, might sustain a five-minute sketch on TV.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The movie is an idyllic view of life as it ought to be, rather than the way it is.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Gosling's performance is a small miracle, not only because he's so completely open as a man who's essentially shut off, but because he changes and grows so imperceptibly before our eyes.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
How this all finally works out is deeply satisfying. Only after the movie is over do you realize what a balancing act it was, what risks it took, what rewards it contains. A character says at one point that she has grown to like Bianca. So, heaven help us, have we.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
When a movie about a guy who orders a sex doll off the Internet can turn vice into virtue, something miraculous has occurred. Lars and the Real Girl achieves that kind of miracle.
Read Full Review >Premiere Howard Karren
Lars's attraction to Bianca is like an audience's to an actor onscreen -- the object is fake, an approximation, but for some that's better than flesh and blood. Bianca is a work of art. And so is Lars and the Real Girl.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
At a time when romantic comedies seem to have exhausted unique ideas, along comes Lars, an original, amusing and heartfelt tale sharply written by Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under).
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
A deep, sweet-hearted study not only of one lonely character but also of the community that supports him.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Both hilarious and poignant, with a Capraesque humanity that caught me completely off guard.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
A strangely affecting romance with real heart -- and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
It takes a village, I've heard it said. It takes a village not only to raise a child but also, in this case, to aid the delusional and help restore good mental health. Or so Lars and the Real Girl would have us believe.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Initially sounds perverted but ends up being just the opposite.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Gosling is excellent playing a character who's fundamentally unknowable.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Of course, entire books have been written, and perused by disappointed women, about the male reluctance to put away their fantasized Biancas. In that sense, Lars and the Real Girl is real indeed. In every other, it's a sweet, bordering on saccharine, bagatelle.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Working with a doll can't be easy, but Gosling actually makes it feel emotionally real. A scene where he shares an imaginary dance with Bianca, with his eyes closed and a beatific smile on his face, is by itself worth the price of admission.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A gentle comedy, offbeat but never cute, never lewd and never going for shortcut laughs that might diminish character.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
While "quirky" is a good descriptor for the production, Lars and the Real Girl isn't so bizarre that mainstream movie goers will reject it. This is an offbeat independent production that could become one of those big little fall surprises.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
It's a tribute to the filmmakers and cast that by the end of Lars and the Real Girl, you can almost accept that Bianca is, well, a real girl.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Gillespie’s movie walks a delicate line through a minefield of potential bad taste. Directed with patient, low-key sensitivity, it never goes for a cheap laugh at its protagonist’s expense.
Read Full Review >Variety Alissa Simon
Helmer Craig Gillespie's sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen brothers riff on Garrison Keillor's "Lake Woebegone" tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Often howlingly funny, and the actors are a treat. But the underlying message is so suspect that it’s hard to suspend disbelief.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
A sweet little comedy, as easygoing and warmly innocuous as the benign irony of the title.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
By movie's end, it seems like the only one giving a truly genuine performance is Bianca. Mouth-agape, steadfastly mum.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
You can approach it as a surreal story -- you'd have to, to find value in it -- but happy chuckles are miles away from the point.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
In spite of the title, there's nothing particularly "real" about Lars And The Real Girl, just a couple layers of quirk several stops removed from the world as we know it.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Really, I think we put up with Lars at all only because Gosling has such an affinity for the wounded boy birds he tends to play that it's easy to watch him do his thing.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
It’s part comedy, part tragedy and 100 percent pure calculation, designed to wring fat tears and coax big laughs and leave us drying our damp, smiling faces as we savor the touching vision of American magnanimity. It holds a flattering mirror up to us that erases every distortion.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Gosling is the film's salvation: He really is good enough to make this underwritten fantasy feel as though it amounts to something. But it doesn't.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
I find Lars and the Real Girl adorable in the worst way, bailed out only by most every member of its excellent cast.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Lars and the Real Girl wobbles in a slow, toneless no-man's-land between mawkish and schmaltzy while trafficking shamelessly in heartland stereotypy.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 81 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Essi S. gave it a9:
Lars and the Real Girl has an amazing script and cast. Ryan Gosling is slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite actors.
Carol G gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this heartwarming tale about a community coming to support one of its own. I recommended this film to all of my friends and they loved it too. I thought it should have gotten best picture in 2007.
Rory P. gave it a6:
Realism and character detail are undermined by the central conceit (that a whole town would be willing to play along with such an odd delusion.) There loving efforts to include Lars simply become unbelievable after a certain point, or at least, the progression of their efforts are not made believable enough for this viewer. The plot is also quite predictable. Saying that there are some nice performances (Emily Mortimer is a stand out) and the dialogue is nicely judged. The production values are also quite good. Not a bad film by any means, just weighed down by noticeable flaws.
Diane M. gave it a2:
Although I love quirky, critically acclaimed films, my personal opinion is that this one stunk. I kept hoping it would get better or more realistic, but it didn't. It reminded me of something a high schooler would write for a class.
Craig A. gave it a9:
Just incredible. I am in awe of Ryan Gosling's acting abilities.
sharee c gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this film. I found myself falling in love with the beauty and support of the entire community in order to help Lars rise above his emotional baggage. In the real world, I think we all could learn something from them.
Jay P. gave it a10:
Thoughly enjoyed. It was funny yet poignant without being sickenly mawkish. A Canadian gem.
