Chrissy vs Lars and The Real Girl

Canadian correspondent Chrissy officially considers this gem of a film a fresh cult classic, as it has suddenly become relevant.

THE REAL GIRL

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Paul Schneider.

Directed By Craig Gillespie

Written by: Nancy Oliver

Last night I couldn’t sleep, so I did what many of us do in this situation: scroll through Tubi!

I came across a film I hadn’t seen since its initial release in 2007.The Craig Gillespie directed “Lars and the Real Girl starring a completely charming Ryan Gosling.

I’m looking forward to Gosling’s upcoming Project Hail Mary, so I watched him in an older film as preparation.

This is one of those movies that are hard to explain to other people. Because the synopsis sounds creepy, when in reality Lars in the Real Girl is a heartfelt study into loneliness, mental health, and the power of an understanding community to heal someone’s soul.

Here is the synopsis

A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.

This is a synopsis that can go a lot of directions, right? It could be a real freaky situation, and maybe that is what you are into! But this film isn’t that.

Lars and The Real Girl tells the story of a man in his late 20s who grew up lonely, with a mother who died while giving birth to him, a father who was too consumed with his own grief to offer his son love, and an older brother named Gus who left him behind as soon as he could.

That’s all the information the viewer is given about Lars’ backstory. We can assume that his father was emotionally abusive and Lars wasn’t cared for in a way that aided his social development.

Fast forward to Lars’ adulthood. He works in an office job, and spends most of his time alone in the garage apartment of the house he grew up in. His brother and pregnant sister-in-law live in the house. Emily Mortimer is adorable as pregnant Karin, who makes it her life’s mission to include Lars in her and Gus’s life. At one point she literally tackles him in the driveway when he tries to skirt a dinner invitation. His loneliness is very much self-imposed, and Lars goes to great lengths to avoid conversations with co-workers and his church community.

One day, though, Lars knocks on Gus and Karin’s door, telling them he has a girlfriend visiting from out of town, and asks if she can stay in their guest room. Thrilled Gus and Karin ‌agree and tell Lars to bring “Bianca” to dinner, only to be confronted with the reality that Lars is very mentally unwell, because instead of a “real girl” Lars brings a lifesize sex doll.

The film does a great and subtle job of letting the viewer know Lars isn’t a perv. On the contrary, he is actually sexually immature. Bianca is a friend, a companion. Someone to listen to Lars sing his favorite songs and watch him chop wood in the yard. His relationship with Bianca is  chaste.

My favorite thing about this film is the unnamed small town it takes place in. Full of people who endure harsh winters and work every day to put food on the table and help each other out. The cast of characters knows how to live in a community. And even though some objections are made, they take Biana in as one of their own. They do it because they care for Lars and want him to get better from what is a serious mental break.

A local doctor named Dagmar, played wonderfully by Patricia Clarkson, tells Lars that she wants to schedule weekly appointments for Bianca to treat her ailments and uses the time to conduct therapy on Lars. She discovers his aversion to touch and the fear he has about Karin’s pregnancy because of the way his mother died. Those scenes are really touching.

Ryan Gosling in 2007 did such a wonderful job carefully and lovingly bringing the character of Lars to the screen. He could easily have come off as creepy, or an incel, or unrealistic. But the nuance in Gosling’s acting is a pleasure to watch.

In a perfect world, one in which we do not live in, illness and trauma would be treated lovingly by community how Lar’s community steps up for him.  They give Bianca a part-time job‌ and she even volunteers at the hospital, as a way of aiding Lars in living without her for substantial periods of time.

Lars’ co-workers invite him to a party where they accept Bianca, on instruction from the host. They do this with little fuss, and as unrealistic as that might seem, the viewer sees how much it helps Lars. In his life before Bianca Lars would never have attended the party at all.

Eventually, Lars doesn’t have a need for Bianca. His trauma is overcome, and he desires to move into the next stage of his life, so he can let her go. Bianca’s exit is handled in a really touching way.

 If you haven’t seen it, ‌ Lars and The Real Girl is not at all what you think it’s going to be, and if you are due for a re-watch, I urge you to press play.

Lars and the Real Girl is streaming on Tubi and Paramount Plus.

Chrissy Winters is a writer who lives surrounded by golden wheat fields and swaying soybeans in rural Ontario, Canada.  A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s The Writers Studio, Chrissy is a wife and mother of three and dog mom of two.  She loves creating characters, reviewing books, film and television and is fueled by exercise and coffee. Connect with her on Instagram @chrissyreadsandwrites.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.