[DVD Review (R2)] LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
I’ve got to admit, I’ve been sat on this review for quite some time now. Hell, if I hadn’t had one of those really annoying “gentle” reminder e-mails from the supplier then it probably wouldn’t be getting reviewed. That’s not to say that Lars and the Real Girl is a bad film. It’s not. It’s just that some movies just don’t make a strong enough impact for me to be able to find a way to bang my fingers away on the keyboard and write a few hundred words about them. I can write a friggin’ disertation on the films I love. I can rant away with the best of them about films I hate. But writing something about a flick that I genuinely don’t know what I think or feel about it? That’s hard, man.
However, ’supplier-harassment’ dictates that I have to put something down about this so let me give it a try.
Lars and the Real Girl was made by Craig Gillespie, who is familiar to me from my encounter with his last movie, Mr Woodcock. That film was so bad that Gillespie went instantly to the top of my shit list. More so for the fact that, Seann William Scott aside (who keeps employing that tool?), Gillespie took Billy Bob Thornton, Ethan Surplee, Susan Sarandon and Amy Poehler – and made a barely watchable movie. To say that this director has improved with this movie isn’t saying much. How could he not?
Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is an awkwardly shy young man in a small northern town who finally brings home the girl of his dreams to his brother and sister-in-law’s home. The only problem is that she’s not real – she’s a sex doll Lars ordered off the Internet. But sex is not what Lars has in mind, but rather a deep, meaningful relationship. His sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) is worried for him, his brother (Paul Schneider) thinks he’s nuts, but eventually the entire town goes along with his delusion in support of this sweet natured boy that they’ve always loved.
So here’s the thing; Lars and the Real Girl is a wonderfully performed movie with the occasional beautifully played comedic aside. There’s moments of genuine likeability, and the cast (Gosling, Mortimer, Schneider, Patricia Clarkson and a standout lovely turn from Kelli Garner) are just as great and as assured as you’ve come to expect from them. But…
… And it’s a big ‘but’. The film is just so goddamn twee! Seriously. Your teeth will ache and your jaw will clench at the sheer ’sugariness’ of it all. The mere notion of an ENTIRE town going to the lengths they go to (to accept a ’sex doll’ as a new “resident” just because they have a soft spot in their hearts for the looney-tune who thinks it is his new girlfriend) is not a driving plot factor that everyone will be able to accept as a viewer. So let me say this then: if you read that sentence, just then, and rolled your eyes and thought “That sounds fuckin’ ridiculous!” then do not even entertain giving this flick a go. You’ve got to go with that concept completely or there’s no “in” for you with this movie.
Going with the ridiculousness of it all wasn’t a problem for me. How it was sold to me was though. The story isn’t just presented to us the viewer; it is wet in sugary water, rolled in icing powder, sprinkled with chocolate drops and then dipped in fudge. This isn’t just interested in telling a severely off-kilter story in a warm, witty fashion. It wants to make sure that this is the MOST twee, quaint, heartfelt telling of such an off-kilter story that you’ll possibly find.
That Lars and the Real Girl is so wonderfully performed and actually rather well directed, are qualities that sort of slip by the wayside a little in the face of its small town Americana message-thumping! It’s not a long movie but it still went on long enough for me to bounce from liking it to hating it, to sort of admiring it, kind of resenting it and just eventually nodding along with it, smiling supportively as it ticked towards its inevitable ending (the “real girl” is presented to us early on and the title kinda suggests where it will lead!) whilst discreetly checking my watch.
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2 Responses to “[DVD Review (R2)] LARS AND THE REAL GIRL”
I wanted to see this and never did.
Don’t rush!
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