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- 2007
- PG-13
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
- 1 h 46 m
- 2007
- PG-13
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
- 1 h 46 m
Summary 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 d...
Directed By: Craig Gillespie
Written By: Nancy Oliver
- 2007
- PG-13
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
- 1 h 46 m
- 2007
- PG-13
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
- 1 h 46 m
Lars and the Real Girl
70
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary 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 d...
Directed By: Craig Gillespie
Written By: Nancy Oliver
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
70
75% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
19% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 32 Critic Reviews
70
75% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
19% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
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.
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.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 185 User Ratings
7.8
86% Positive
159 Ratings
159 Ratings
7% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
7% Negative
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 185 User Ratings
7.8
86% Positive
159 Ratings
159 Ratings
7% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
7% Negative
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
I have to be honest, Lars and the Real Girl caught me completely off guard. Ryan Gosling gives the best performance in his career in a film about love, community, healing, and the most unique coming of age story I have ever borne witness too. Great cinematography, direction, sound design, and an unbelievably good script will help you buy into the movie in a way few movies will bother to do. This is a lowkey classic, and serious movie fans need to watch this heartwarming tale.
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By its end, one of the most satisfying films ever made. Lars and the Real Girl is certainly a modern oddity - with feelings we all possess and share. Ryan Gosling vividly portrays a character which we grow to love and care for deeply, despite any peculiarity. It's blasphemy to not have given Gosling that Oscar nomination.
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A deep, sweet-hearted study not only of one lonely character but also of the community that supports him.
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.
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.
Lars and the Real Girl wobbles in a slow, toneless no-man's-land between mawkish and schmaltzy while trafficking shamelessly in heartland stereotypy.
Heart touching. Sweet. Uplifting. Ryan Gosling gives an incredible performance as Lars, an emotionally stunted man who deep down is dying to connect with the people around him. I hardly watch movies twice, but I've seen this one more than 5X, and catch myself smiling through out. It's sheer perfection.
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"Lars and the Real Girl" is well-written, well-shot, well-acted, but not quite special enough to rise beyond being okay. This sort of plot is hardly new, and while I think this film does a decent job executing and rehashing it, it's hardly a movie that sticks with me, or feels all too special. It hits every box you expect it to, and ends how one would expect. None of that is meant to discredit this movie's merits however, as there are plenty of films out there that aim for a similar storyline and execute it far worse. Ryan Gosling's performance alone is enough to elevate this movie above others in the same vein, and to the film's credit, its attempts at conveying emotion were all pulled off exceptionally. It's a bit of a crowd pleaser, but hey, there are far worse things one can be.
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Best Performance: Ryan Gosling
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I confess that I don't really know what to think about this film. I recognize the originality of the theme, but if the idea was to do comedy, it failed me. Furthermore, I also got the feeling that the film enters too often in a kind of "twilight zone" where everyone, more or less consciously and deliberately, plays the fool - even the priest!
The film's script focuses on Lars, an incredibly shy man, who is not even able to maintain a normal relationship with his own family and isolates himself as much as possible. Suddenly, he decides to introduce a new girlfriend to everyone, but she is simply a very realistic plastic erotic doll. From here, and to my surprise, everyone decides to cooperate with this man's delusion and treat the doll as if he were a real person.
For me, the film didn't work. I am not able to give the script any credibility and the story told is simply too far-fetched and improbable for me to swallow it. If the idea was to make a satire, I did not understand what was at stake. If the idea was to do comedy, it wasn't funny at all. Personally, I found it even a little offensive, as the film tries to make you laugh at the expense of a man who is so shy that he urgently needs therapy or psychological counseling. And, now that I mention it, I also don't understand all the pressure from society to push an individual into dating or marriage. Sometimes you are happier as a single person.
Although I did not like this film, and raised serious questions about the script, I recognize the value and commitment of its cast, particularly Ryan Gosling. The actor is superb, and he works in depth, in an extremely rich character and with a very interesting psychology, which the actor knew how to explore and develop wonderfully. Ultimately, Gosling's excellent performance not only greatly redeems the film but ends up being the real reason to see it! The film also features Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner and Emily Mortimer in the supporting roles, but it's Gosling that shines.
Technically, the film seems to be quite neutral, within the regular standards of the industry: cinematography and sets do not bring anything original but fulfill their role quite well; the costumes, and particularly Gosling's, were quite good and harmonized with the environment and the theme (I especially liked the costumes used at the funeral). I don't think the film had a very big budget, but the production was able to make good use of it.
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I don't really understand whats so great about the movie. I mean the town as a whole coming and supporting a guys who is dellusional is beautiful. However there are other ways to depict it. Ryan Gosling falls in love with a sex doll and then the doll dies and his dillusion breaks gradually.I Know its stupid, "no this was not worth it"
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Satellite Awards
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
