Love is a many splendored delusion in ‘Lars and the Real
Girl’
”
Lars and the Real Girl
”
starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider
Love makes us all a little delusional. There are those who pine
away for a close friend we just know is going to wake up one day
and realize they’ve been madly in love with us for ever. And there
are those who give a second chance to an ex because we just know
they’ve changed for the better.
Love is a many splendored delusion in ‘Lars and the Real Girl’
“Lars and the Real Girl” starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider
Love makes us all a little delusional. There are those who pine away for a close friend we just know is going to wake up one day and realize they’ve been madly in love with us for ever. And there are those who give a second chance to an ex because we just know they’ve changed for the better.
We bend over backwards to keep our loved ones close and sometimes turn a blind eye to signs someone doesn’t like us as much as we like them. Sometimes the delusions are short-lived and we come to our senses and wonder, “What were we thinking?” and often receive an “I-told-you so” from a friend or two.
We’ve all been a little delusional when it comes to love. But none of us have been as delusional as Lars Lindstrom.
In “Lars and the Real Girl,” the object of Lars’ (Ryan Gosling) affection really is an object. Lars is an awkward, social outcast in a northern mid-western town. Gosling transformed himself into a hokey small town guy with shaggy brown hair and natty sweaters for the role.
Karin (Emily Mortimer), Lars’ sister-in-law, expresses concern that he always seems to spend his time alone. His brother Gus (Paul Schneider) assures his wife his brother is just a loner like their father was. After an evening dinner with the family, Lars returns a few days later and says he met someone.
They soon realize something is wrong when the former missionary girl Lars introduces them to turns out to be a sex doll he ordered on the Internet. But Lars is so far gone into his delusion that he talks to Bianca as though she is real – and seems to believe she responds back. Karin and Gus are at a loss so they play along until they can have a talk with the local doctor.
Karin and Gus trick Lars into seeing the doctor, Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson), by telling him Bianca looks sick. They take her into the doctor’s office for treatment and Dagmar suggests that the best thing to do is continue playing along with Lars’ delusion. In the meantime, she tells Lars Bianca should come in for weekly treatment and she uses that time to talk to Lars while he waits.
Lars’ seeming mental illness is especially hard for Gus, who is worried about what neighbors and co-workers will think. They come from a stoic family where feelings aren’t expressed and they don’t really talk about things much. Karin, on the other hand, is very forthcoming in her support. She talks to Bianca in front of Lars, provides clothes for the doll and even prepares a plate for her.
Writer Nancy Oliver wrote seven episodes for the television show “Six Feet Under” and one might expect “Lars and the Real Girl” to be as explosive as some of the storylines in the series. But Oliver toes the line with “Lars.” Though one of the main characters is a sex doll, Lars’ relationship with Bianca is clearly not about sex. He even manufactures strong religious vows for her so that the doll can sleep in the house with his sister-in-law and brother while he sleeps in the garage apartment. Even during their time alone, Lars opts to take her to his favorite childhood haunt, a tree house near a lake. She stays firmly on the ground while he hangs out in the tree.
After a few sessions with Dagmar, who has a background in psychiatry as well as general practice, Lars’ reason for his delusion begins to unravel. His mother died in childbirth when he was born. After his mother died, his father withdrew from the world and Gus left home as soon as he could. Lars was left with no one to show him how to deal with things. His sister-in-law Karin is pregnant, and showing more each day, and it seems his fear of losing her could be a logical reason for the onset of his illness.
What makes the movie great, even though it is something that would never happen in real life, is that as the townspeople find out about Lars’ delusion, they decide to play along. Bianca is welcome at church. Lars’ co-workers invite him to a party and he brings her along. She even gets offers of work, both paid and volunteer.
Soon Bianca’s life is much fuller than Lars’ and his world begins to shatter a little bit more. The most poignant moment in the movie is between Lars and Karin when he is once again unhappy at how much time Bianca is spending without him. He begins to wallow in self-pity about how no one cares about him. It is the first time in the movie when Karin comes close to confronting Lars about his delusion. She screams at him that the reason Bianca is so busy is because people care so much about him. “We do it for you,” she yells.
In the end Lars discovers he doesn’t need Bianca and that the love of a real woman is worth much more.
