Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

I have expressed a few times before that I am a huge fan of comedy-dramas, films that can make you laugh, and can make you cry. They are usually smart, quirky, and sweet beyond repair. And another perfect example of this, along with the many I have listed in reviews past, is Lars and the Real Girl, from one of the greatest years in film of this century, 2007. Starring Ryan Gosling a few years before his big 3-film-a-year boom of 2011, this film tells the tale of Lars, an extremely secluded man who is almost allergic to other humans. He longs for human contact, but it socially unable to have it, so he purchases an atomically correct RealDoll from the internet. But, he doesn’t use it for its purpose. He doesn’t fulfill any perverted desires, he doesn’t dilute to fetishism it in the slightest-he just pretends that it is a real person, names her Bianca, and passes her off as a real person. I can assume in his mind he sees a real person, where everybody else sees a doll. Also a part of the cast is Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider as Lars’ brother and sister-in-law, who have to try to convince the town to go along with the stunt for his sake. The highest honor this film boasts is its script, and it brings me a little bit of faith in the Academy that it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and I would argue the fact that it should have won, but what did win was Diablo Cody’s script for Juno, and that was an absolutely wonderful script, one that deserved every single award it got, so it can be forgiven. Also given an award nomination was Ryan Gosling for Best Comedic Actor, and that was completely deserved. The way the script and Ryan in the role of Lars walk hand-in-hand, and they create this character that is a truly tragic one. It just breaks your heart every time you see him with this fantasy, and you see him come of age, and that it a wonderful thing to watch-but also a very difficult thing to pull off, and this movie pulls it off perfectly. The wonderful blend of the character and the dialogue make this one of the must-see movies of 2007, just to see Ryan Gosling in this role. NOTE: If you watch this movie (if you watch any movie) while reading about quantum mechanics on Wikipedia, it will mess with your head. NOTE 2: Schrödinger’s Cat is not dead.
8.5/10