One could be led to expect something arch and knowing, but the film is anything but that. It's an emotionally invested movie about loneliness and the lingering scars of early trauma.
Comment
10/19/07
Lars And The Real Girl (2007)
81
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:129
Fresh:104
Rotten:25
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Lars and the Real Girl could've so easily been a one-joke movie. But the talented cast, a great script, and direction never condescends to its character or the audience.
Theatrical Release:21-03-2008
Synopsis: As the title character, Ryan Gosling is a strange but likeable young man who manages to keep down a job but keeps mostly to himself. He only leaves the garage where he lives when his older brother... [More]
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider
Director: Craig Gillespie
Reviews for Lars And The Real Girl
Only after the movie is over do you realize what a balancing act it was, what risks it took, what rewards it contains.
10/19/07
Top CriticLars and the Real Girl is poised on the line between earnestness and farce.
10/19/07
It's nothing less than a miracle that the director, Craig Gillespie, and the writer, Nancy Oliver, have been able to make such an endearing, intelligent and tender comedy from a premise that, in other hands, might sustain a five-minute sketch on TV.
10/19/07
...somehow finds just the right tone - two parts empathy, one part goofiness and not a trace of derision.
10/19/07
The central gimmick of the film remains just that -- a gimmick -- as genuine emotion gives way to shaggy-dog shtick.
10/19/07
It may well be the finest, strangest and most emotional romantic comedy-drama to come along since "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
10/18/07
... a sweet little comedy, as easygoing and warmly innocuous as the benign irony of the title
10/18/07
Even [Gosling] can’t guide us to the pulse within this pat material, and you have to keep reminding yourself which of the title characters is the plastic one.
10/18/07
You'll pardon me if I feeling like urping just a tiny bit at screenwriter Nancy Oliver's blend of pathos and heartland condescension.
10/18/07
Erupting with compassion and humanity.
10/15/07
I didn’t connect with it.
10/15/07
There are so many ways this movie could have gone wrong that it's a minor miracle it never flies off the rails...sweetly quirky, warmly funny and even touching.
10/13/07
Thanks to grounded performances from its top-notch cast, Lars overcomes an ultra-quirky premise and develops into a thoughtful, albeit unusual, romance.
10/13/07
This movie is either a cautionary tale or my potential future biography. I'm just kidding, I'll never be able to afford one of those dolls.
10/12/07
There's nothing particularly 'real' about Lars And The Real Girl, just a couple layers of quirk several stops removed from the world as we know it.
10/12/07
...There's something fundamentally hollow about a film whose main character is entirely defined by his dysfunction and whose supporting characters exist only to enable it.
10/12/07
Comic and moving (without being overly sentimental) and completely unique, Lars and the Real Girl is one of the best times anyone will have at the movies this year.
10/12/07
Directed with patient, low-key sensitivity, it never goes for a cheap laugh at its protagonist’s expense.
10/12/07
Lars is played by the endlessly fascinating Ryan Gosling, who perhaps has too much of a taste for damaged characters, but manages the tricky task of both playing Lars' feelings and hinting at their motivations.
10/12/07
Latest News for Lars And The Real Girl
July 17, 2008:
David Gordon Green: From Indie Auteur to Pineapple Express 
David Gordon Green might seem like an unusual choice to direct Pineapple Express, but as it turns out, the man behind the camera for Snow Angels and All the Real Girls was a... More...
June 05, 2008:
Gosling, Gillespie Start The Dallas Buyers Club
Ryan Gosling will re-team with his Lars and the Real Girl director, Craig Gillespie, for the based-on-a-true-story drama The Dallas Buyers Club. More...
April 14, 2008:
RT on DVD: Juno, AVP2, and Dungeon Siege
If you're not sick of hearing Diablo Cody this, hamburger phone that, then this week's bonus-packed release of Juno should be numero uno on your list, home skillet. Otherwise,... More...
January 23, 2008:
Ryan Gosling Starring in Jack Ryan Franchise Reboot?
Romantics swooned over him in The Notebook, and critics loved his turn as the doll-toting lead character in last year's Lars and the Real Girl -- and if the latest rumors are... More...
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