‘Lars and the Real Girl' an extraordinary experience
If they passed out Oscars for best performance by a silicone sex doll, the mono-monikered Bianca would win in a heartbeat -- if she only had a heart.
The sensational movie she's in, the ironically titled "Lars and the Real Girl," does, a great big mushy one that has driven more than a few "real men" to weep like they're being quarried by Barbara Walters.
Count me among them. I didn't see it coming, either.
That's because "Lars" is the kind of movie that starts slow -- real slow -- then steadily builds and builds until you find yourself bursting with emotion -- kind of like sex. But sex, despite the conspicuous presence of a life-size love doll, is never part of the equation in this beautifully rendered treatise on love, community and the healing powers of silicone.
That because sex is something 27-year-old Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling effectively transforming into quasi-nerd mode) avoids like the plague. It's part of his long-festering psychosis, one that dates to his childhood and has him becoming more of a recluse, holing up in a converted garage behind the home of his late parents in icy cold northern Minnesota.
Despite repeated overtures from his sweet, adorable and pregnant sister-in-law, Karin (displaying bits of a maternal psychosis of her own), Lars refuses to leave his Spartan cubbyhole for anything except work and church, where he grudgingly puts his self-involvement aside just long enough to exchange perfunctory pleasantries with others.
Sounds a bit like a budding Unibomber, right? His estranged older brother, Gus, would seem to agree. But give him -- and the movie -- time, as Lars, a close relative of De Niro's Rupert Pupkin from "The King of Comedy," gets in touch with his real feelings with the help of a fake friend purchased on the Internet from Realdoll.com.
He names the striking, raven-haired silicone beauty Bianca and creates a plausible back-story, telling people that she is a wheelchair-bound missionary on sabbatical. Gus (Paul Schneider) and Karin (Emily Mortimer) are understandably mortified and rush to the town doctor/shrink (the always terrific Patricia Clarkson), who advises them -- and everyone in their tiny hamlet -- to play along with Lars' illusion.
Granted, the film is rooted in contrivance and the outcome is hardly surprising. Getting there, however is, but only if you're willing to yield to the conceit that an entire town would band together to help one kook.
Clearly, such unselfish unity would never happen in real life, but to imagine such a thing, even if its only in the context of a two-hour movie, is as inspiring as it is heart-tugging.
Like all the great films of its ilk ("Harvey," "Edward Scissorhands," "It's a Wonderful Life," "Big"), "Lars and the Real Girl" mines its unending charm by keeping the fantasy rooted in reality. No easy task, but director Craig Gillespie (taking a humongous step up from his debut film, last month's "Mr. Woodcock") is more than up to the task, rendering a mood that feels as comfortable and lived in as an old pair of jeans.
It's the Capra-esque script by former "Six Feet Under" writer Nancy Oliver that's the real doll, though. Mixing dark humor and pathos with romance and camp, she's created something amazingly astute and perceptive. You just want to scoop her lovable movie up, give it a giant hug and never let go.
Ditto for the entire cast, but especially Gosling, Mortimer, Clarkson and Kelli Garner utterly adorable as a cute but mousy co-worker crushing on Lars. All are at the top of their game, delivering performances that are heroically natural and unaffected in a film that's anything but normal. It's extraordinary.
"Lars and the Real Girl": PG-13 for some sex-related content. Cast includes Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Schneider and Kelli Garner. Directed by Craig Gillespie. 3.5 stars.
The Patriot Ledger