Steven desJardins (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stevendj) wrote,@ 2007-10-25 00:26:00 |
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Lars and the Real Girl
Lars and the Real Girl is the best movie I've seen in a long time. Lars is a solitary person with severe social anxiety—you describes other people's touch as like the feeling you get after your foot gets numb from the cold, then starts to warm up. A co-worker is obviously pining after him, but the idea plainly terrifies him. And worst of all, everyone is pestering him to have dinner, get a girlfriend, don't spend so much time alone.
So one day...he orders a sex doll. And he introduces her to his family as his new girlfriend, Bianca, a Brazilian missionary, who has to use a wheelchair to get around, who doesn't speak much because her English is so poor, who doesn't have any clothes because the airplane lost her luggage. He's delusional. And the psychiatrist they bring him to tells them to go along with. The delusion is serving a purpose, even if they don't know what it is, and the best thing to do is play along, while bringing him in for weekly therapy.
And soon the whole town is playing along. Because, really, what else are they going to do? They like Lars. And it's fun to pretend. Soon Bianca has more of a social life than Lars does. And in his companionship with the doll, and his sessions with the psychiatrist, Lars slowly finds his way past the anxieties that have held himself back so long.
The premise, reduced to a single line, sounds like a comedy. And it is a very funny movie. But at its heart it's a serious movie, because the important relationship is the one Lars is most afraid of—the love between Lars and the real girl. This is a movie that could go wrong in so many different ways, yet never does. It always treats Lars, and his delusions, with respect.
Lars and the Real Girl is the best movie I've seen in a long time. Lars is a solitary person with severe social anxiety—you describes other people's touch as like the feeling you get after your foot gets numb from the cold, then starts to warm up. A co-worker is obviously pining after him, but the idea plainly terrifies him. And worst of all, everyone is pestering him to have dinner, get a girlfriend, don't spend so much time alone.
So one day...he orders a sex doll. And he introduces her to his family as his new girlfriend, Bianca, a Brazilian missionary, who has to use a wheelchair to get around, who doesn't speak much because her English is so poor, who doesn't have any clothes because the airplane lost her luggage. He's delusional. And the psychiatrist they bring him to tells them to go along with. The delusion is serving a purpose, even if they don't know what it is, and the best thing to do is play along, while bringing him in for weekly therapy.
And soon the whole town is playing along. Because, really, what else are they going to do? They like Lars. And it's fun to pretend. Soon Bianca has more of a social life than Lars does. And in his companionship with the doll, and his sessions with the psychiatrist, Lars slowly finds his way past the anxieties that have held himself back so long.
The premise, reduced to a single line, sounds like a comedy. And it is a very funny movie. But at its heart it's a serious movie, because the important relationship is the one Lars is most afraid of—the love between Lars and the real girl. This is a movie that could go wrong in so many different ways, yet never does. It always treats Lars, and his delusions, with respect.
