After his remarkable, Oscar nominated turn in Half Nelson even potential detractors had to agree that Ryan Gosling is a good thing. Since he first stumbled into our consciousness in the unfortunate guise of Young Hercules, he has consistently impressed and amazed across a range of roles that stretch from cult girlie favourite The Notebook to neo-Nazi drama The Believer. His work in Lars And The Real Girl is something else again. It’s not every actor that could make you weep for a life sized Brazilian sex doll but he seems to manage it artfully.
A tender dramedy from Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver and director Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock), Lars sees Mr. Gosling in truly geeky form as the socially awkward, delusional young man of the title. Despite the best efforts of his brother (Schneider) and sister-in-law (Mortimer), not to mention the flirtations of co-worker Margot (Garner), Lars is friendless and introverted. Though by no means dislikeable, he divides his time between church, work and the garage where he lives with as few interactions as he can manage.
Imagine everyone’s surprise when he announces that Bianca, an exotic half-Brazilian, half-Danish, wheelchair-bound missionary whom he met online, is coming to dinner. Of course it’s an even bigger surprise when the girl of Lars’ dreams turns out to be a custom-built sex doll.
Bianca is, in the way of these items, anatomically correct though Lars, who doesn’t believe in premarital relations, has nothing but the most honourable intentions. His family and fellow churchgoers, at the behest of a local psychologist (Clarkson), accept Bianca absolutely, taking her out to Bridge evenings and the beauty parlour in the hope that Lars will recover.
Like Be Kind Rewind, Lars And The Real Girl is the sort of movie Frank Capra might make were some talented boffin to clone him from a DNA sample. Beneath a premise that seems indie-schmindie and too quirky by half, lies a gorgeous little fable that suggests, as Hilary Clinton once did, that It Takes A Village. It may well be the first film to make prominent use of a silicone sex toy that you and your grandma could watch and love together.