Guy and doll

>> Ryan Gosling is love-struck in a strange
way in Lars and the Real Girl

by MATTHEW HAYS

The premise sounds like one of those films that almost certainly won’t work. Lars and the Real Girl features one epically shallow young man, played by Ryan Gosling, who cannot relate to other people. He spends most of his time alone, until he orders a life-sized doll from an online service. When Bianca arrives, he introduces her to his brother and sister-in-law as though she were the real thing. He’s convinced she’s real, and can’t hear any protests to the contrary.

So far, the synopsis sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch that would probably falter by about the six-minute mark. But enter Patricia Clarkson, who plays the small town’s doctor, and you’ve got an actor who could muster some suspension of disbelief. Gosling feels that Bianca is so real, she argues, that his family and friends are going to have to go along with the ruse, or it could do him damage. Just play along, she suggests, like Bianca is indeed a real woman.

And then a funny thing happens: Lars and the Real Girl actually works, achieving a degree of poignancy as Lars’s family, friends and the rest of the town rally around him and his gal, hoping that eventually he’ll get better. It is a tribute to the actors—in particular Gosling, who’s got the most heavy lifting to do, both figuratively and literally—that Lars and the Real Girl sustains itself as long as it does.

Sadly though, director Craig Gillespie pushes his luck, threatening to upend the entire feature. There’s a somewhat grating musical score, the kind reminding us when to tear up. Then there are the townsfolk caricatures, golden people who look out for one another and who all want to go along with the nutty Bianca-is-real ploy to help out their neighbour. Basically, these are small townsfolk as only a big-city screenwriter could envision them.

Still, for any and all faults Lars and the Real Girl has, it’s ultimately a pleasing and funny film, pulling off a stunt that’s pretty remarkable. The doll, the shy guy and the town: it makes all of it almost seem real.

Lars and the Real Girl
opens this Friday, Nov. 9

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