Lars and the Real Girl: DVD Review

Meet Bianca. She's a wonderful girl, pretty brunette, former missionary and nurse, and great with kids. Unfortunately, she's also in a wheelchair and has a few other health problems. But that doesn't stop her from volunteering at the hospital and the department store. She hasn't been in town very long. She arrived recently via UPS.

UPS? What kind of girl travels by UPS?

Okay, I forgot to mention that Bianca is actually a sex doll ordered off the Internet. But don't tell Lars. To him she's real as real can be, and he loves her. Bianca may be "anatomically correct", but she really is not "that kind of girl" anymore than Lars is "that kind of guy." He's very sweet and innocent really, be he has a lot of issues connecting with people - especially physical interaction. He lives with his brother and sister-in-law, sort of. Lars stays in the garage -- by choice.

But Lars is actually pretty well liked in his community, and where they haven't been able to connect with him directly they find there is a new opportunity now that Bianca is in his life. His brother and sister-in-law see that she gets medical treatment from the town's general practitioner (who is also a licensed psychologist) and Lars talks to her while Bianca has her "treatments." Lars and Bianca get invited to parties, and it's the community that helps Bianca get volunteer jobs. Lars isn't exactly pleased at first to discover Bianca's life doesn't completely revolve around him, but he learns to live with it. And the more popular Bianca gets without Lars, the more accepted Lars feels without Bianca. There's even a real girl from work that has a bit of a crush on him, but she won't act on it. Not with Bianca in the picture.

Lars and the Real Girl was hardly a blockbuster when it was out in theatres, although it was named as one of the ten best films of 2007 by The Associated Press. I believe I saw the preview when I saw some other Indie film, and I knew I wanted to see it. It never hit the theatre near my house, and I wound up buying it with no regrets. Sometimes all we need to make a connection is some kind of bridge -- and Bianca provided the perfect bridge between Lars and his community. I highly recommend that you at least rent this movie, even if you don't decide to own it. Bianca may be a doll, be she has a lot to teach about human nature.

Lars and the Real Girl stars Ryan Gosling as Lars, Paul Schneider as his brother Gus, Emily Mortimer as his sister-in-law, Karin, Patricia Clarkson as Dr. Dagmar, Kelli Garner as Margo (the real girl), and Bianca as herself.