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Lars And The Real Girl (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 121
Fresh: 98
Rotten:23
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 Gus (Paul Schneider) and loving sister-in-law... 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 Gus (Paul Schneider) and loving sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) drag him to their house next door for dinner. Lars doesn't take well to questioning, so the disturbing level of his isolation is never openly discussed. It's only when he announces he has a girlfriend in the form of an anatomically correct doll he purchased via the Internet that everyone must admit his precarious mental state. No one quite knows how to help Lars, so they play along, careful not to do anything that might push him or Bianca (his plastic fiancée) over the edge. The results are touching efforts on the part of all those who love him to help Lars through what his psychologist (Patricia Clarkson) assures them may be only a stage. Kelli Garner shines as Margo, the real, live girl who Lars seems incapable of seeing. Despite being ignored, Margo hangs in there, hopeful Lars will come around to sanity and to her. Craig Gillespie's LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a sweet love story and a film which deals with mental illness in surprisingly subtle ways. With a formula that could easily have manipulated for cheap laughs, the film achieves quirky humor in parts but mostly touching observations about the nature of delusions themselves. The film's talented cast gathers around Lars, a sensitive character who the film respects and who Gosling (THE NOTEBOOK, HALF NELSON) brings fully to life. [More]
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner
Director: Craig Gillespie
Director: Craig Gillespie
Screenwriter: Nancy Oliver
Producer: Sidney Kimmel, John Cameron, Sarah Aubrey
Composer: David Torn
Studio: MGM
Reviews for Lars And The Real Girl
A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around.
Cynics might find it precious, but open-hearted audiences will love it.
This script by Nancy Oliver (Six Feet Under) is a delicate, bittersweet, and often sad story of a lost, fragile man and the people who love him.
A plea for compassion and understanding; its lack of the negative side of human nature almost makes it seem desperate in that regard, but overall it's deft at achieving its goal.
It's a movie driving in neutral. It never really gets as clever, as emotional or as funny as I wanted it too.
The story may sound intolerably precious, but 'Lars and the Real Girl' is disarmingly sweet and quietly affecting.
Lars and the Real Girl proves love is blind - and it can be inanimate as well.
A kind of Invasion Of The Silicone Body Snatchers, this weirdly affecting tall tale is about a loony guy and his entire delusional small town falling in PG love with a certainly not politically correct but irrefutably anatomically correct, well, sex doll.
This charmer of a film is one that you will never forget. It's funny, overtly moving and uplifting. I want to see it again
while without question funny at times (and sad at others), [it is] never mocking, degrading or lewd - a true miracle for a film about one man's relationship with a sex doll
Don't let the movie's premise turn you off to what is one of the most affirming, gratifying films you'll see this year.
The speech Gus gives his pregnant wife, Karin, about letting Lars live in the garage and become what he is deserves more recognition than many of the performances up for Academy Awards.
As sweet a portrait of small town life as you are ever likely to see.
Weird on paper, strangely and sweetly affecting onscreen. See it. You won't regret it.
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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