Lars and the Real Girl -- "That was great!"

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on October 23, 2007 at 10:02:24

"That was great!" was the comment I heard three or four times upon exiting the theatre. The audience was as one, for this showing at least, and this in the People's Republic of Cambridge, where a gentle movie about an upper-midwestern town is likely to be mere fly-over territory, intellectually.

(PROFANITY WARNING -- There is none! Those who seek realism through nasty language must look elsewhere.)

As everyone probably knows, the painfully shy Lars is found to have purchased a mail-order bride, in this case a real doll of a gal. As he introduces her to his shocked relatives, then to the community, the initial reactions of disbelief and ridicule are supplanted by everyone's genuine concern for the lovelorn Lars. Where the movie meanders from there was unguessed by me, but along with most of the audience I ended the last half-hour with sad tears in my eyes and a happy smile on my face. Can't recall that peculiar combination before.

Lars is played unflinchingly by a committed Ryan Gosling. Paul Schneider is note-perfect as the put-upon but loving brother, and Patricia Clarkson plays the wise prairie doctor.

The movie most like this one, in spirit, is Station Agent -- which also featured Clarkson.

clark

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