What Do The Critics Say?

"With a premise that goes way beyond quirky, it comes as no surprise to learn that the film's script was penned by the writer of cult TV funeral drama Six Feet Under. The film comes fairly close to delivering a happy ending, although it is careful to avoid slapping on the cheese too thick. Director Gillespie manages to strike just the right balance." Tracey Prisk ADELAIDE NOW "Surprisingly touching and humane, thanks to its restrained direction and strong performances and sweet-hearted script." Mike Russell OREGONIAN "The clever, ultimately moving script overall delicate, sweet tone, and uniformly fine performances lift the movie above what could have been a creepy premise." Jane Stevenson JAM MOVIES "The most poignant, well-acted and weirdly funny movie you'll see this year." John Monaghan DETROIT PRESS "This film is heart-warming and lovely, but it's also deeply sad and tragic, and somehow Gosling captures both sides of this tale, touching both the deep sorrows and gladnesses that give the story it's texture and depth." Kim Voynar CINEMATICAL

"Director-writer Craig Gillespie makes his offbeat premise work by treating it like the most normal thing in the world. The movie also affords Gosling, one of our better and more idiosyncratic actors, a meaty role most stars wouldn't dare attempt. One of the strangest, funniest and most romantic movies you're likely to see." Sean Means SALT LAKE TRIBUNE "Sweet, moving and heartfelt aren't necessarily the first words that come to mind when describing the tender tale of a young man and his sex doll, yet all three apply to Lars and the Real Girl." Bill Goodykoontz ARIZONA REPUBLIC "The deadpan comedy Lars and the Real Girl, the tale of an emotionally backward man and the sex doll he believes to be alive, is often howlingly funny, and the actors are a treat. The most remarkable performance comes from Patricia Clarkson as Dr Dagmar, the general practitioner who helps to sustain Lars’s delusion." David Edelstein NEW YORK MAGAZINE "Gosling has deservedly won big buzz for his sensitive and humane portrayal of Lars, never playing him with the slightest wink .. making his journey all the more affecting." Michael Dequina MR BROWNS MOVIES "Every scene that could be played for pathos uncorks great laughs, while those that could turn crass or silly are compassionate. On every level, this is a labor of love." Colin Covert MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

The Inside Story Lars Lindstrom is just getting through life. In the small Midwestern town he has always lived in, Lars holds down a nondescript office job, occupies the garage apartment behind his childhood home, where his brother, Gus and sister in law Karin now live. He lives in near isolation, avoids human contact literally, his social life consists of weekly church attendance and chats with his co-worker with whom he shares an office cubicle. He refuses all invitations from Karin and Gus and runs from the obvious flirtations of his coworker Margo. As director Craig Gillespie puts it, "He’s been living in limbo, getting by under the radar. He’s almost invisible." But everything changes when Lars introduces Gus and Karin to Bianca, a beautiful half-Danish, half-Brazilian missionary "on sabbatical to experience the world." Much to Gus and Karin’s horror, Bianca is a RealGirl, a custom-ordered, life-size doll. That she is so is obvious to everyone but Lars, for whom Bianca is a religious girl raised by nuns, she is reliant on a wheelchair, shy and soulful. "Gus is representative of the nay-saying, suspicious, angry outside world that has decided his brother is insane, that this is ridiculous and wrong and awful, and he doesn’t want to think about it," Emily Mortimer ("Lovely & Amazing" & "Dear Frankie") explained. "So I’m immediately stuck in the middle, trying to corral my furious husband while still loving him very much, and wanting he and Lars desperately to be friends." Director Craig Gillespie suggests that "Karin encompasses a lot of what Lars sees as his mother. Karin’s very strong and opinionated but she’s also incredibly warm and comforting and nurturing. She’s the glue in the family." "Gus gets bullied into playing along," Schneider (who played Brad Stevenson in "The Family Stone") responds. "Karin’s so aggressive about it, like if he doesn’t do this he’ll be a bad person, and how could she be married to a bad person?" "Gus is funny but torn and angst-ridden and confused for much of the film," says "Bad Santa"and "The Kingdom" Producer John Cameron, "and Paul does a marvelous job of running through that roller coaster of emotions." There's more going on with Gus than first appears. The recognition that Lars might be unbalanced brings up long denied feelings of guilt and remorse. "This is a dysfunctional family that has been maintaining its dysfunction for quite some time," Schneider admits. "Now, all of a sudden my character has to deal with the fact that he’s been a massive failure as a brother. Bianca’s arrival into our lives brings this front and center and, in a very painful way, exorcises all of this." This conflict brings Dr Dagmar Berman into the scene. Patricia Clarkson, who shared the 2003 Chlotrudis Award for Best actress ("Far From Heaven" 2002) with Emily Mortimer ("Lovely & Amazing" 2001) was cast as the towns physician Dr Dagmar Berman, who by the way, just happens to possess a degree in Psychology. Can she provide an answer? "She just does her best. She gives it a go; she’s in it for Lars," says Clarkson. Clarkson, who had very little time to rehearse after landing on set, credits Gillespie with keeping her character true. "Dagmar is so calm and centered and still; there’s nothing extraneous about her. Craig has that similar quality, so I could take him in with me and start the scene. He has a great love for this project and for the people involved. And he understands this film beautifully," the two time Emmy Award winner Clarkson ("Six Feet Under" 2002 & '06) notes. Dr Dagmar's solution is to just go alng with Lars until she can unlock the key to his problem. Through acceptance, Bianca soon becomes a part of the community. Before long she’s helping out at the local daycare, 'reading' an audio book to the children; she’s modeling at a dress shop, volunteering with Mrs Gruner at the hospital, and sitting on the school board. It’s a response, says writer Nancy Oliver ("Six Feet Under"), that speaks to "the human ability to adapt to whatever is there and incorporate these things into our lives. Bianca becomes a member of the community and serves a purpose. A question I have often asked myself is, if there are so many desperate people walking around with mental illness, what would happen if we treated their illnesses and their delusions with compassion, acceptance and tolerance instead of this medieval shunning thing that we do? If this is the way it is for them, that’s the way it is. Why should we put them on the fringes because of something they can’t help?" This theme of acceptance and cooperation resonates with the cast. "The film has a lot of affection for its characters and for people in general," 2007 Independent Spirit Award winner Ryan Gosling ("Half Nelson") says with rapturous admiration. "It believes people want to do the right thing; they want to be part of something good. In so many films, the overriding idea is that people will ruin everything; that if we get our hands on something special we’ll destroy it. This film doesn’t believe that." Ryan, who in 2001 received the Golden Aries Best Foreign Actor Award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics for "The Believer", says he admires Lars. "Even though he is a very lonely person, he doesn’t make a choice to be loved; he makes a choice to love something. I like the idea that you can love something and it doesn’t necessarily have to love you back. It doesn’t need to be a transaction; you can just give." "Usually you expect the drama to be between this misfit guy and the society that’s not accepting him," says Mortimer, "yet Bianca is easily integrated into this community. They’re good, decent people trying their best to help this lost soul in their midst, they take Bianca seriously and, in fact, all develop their individual relationships with her." Through Bianca, Lars takes his first tentative steps through the minefield that is romance. At the park where he walks Bianca through his childhood haunts, he sums up the courage to serenade her from atop a popular tree house, a suggestion which evidently came from Gosling. "At some point in the movie, you need to see Lars truly expose himself to Bianca, to make himself as vulnerable as he can. I was thinking of things that would make me feel very vulnerable, and I realized it would be equally hard for him to sing in private as it would be for me to sing in a movie," Gosling explained. Of course, having a girlfriend opens the door of opportunity for Lars. "Having a girlfriend, even if she is silicone, gives him permission to participate in the community in the way he’s always wanted to," Oliver explained. "It makes him feel normal." That point comes when Lars accepts an invitation to a co-worker’s house party. For Lars the party proves exhilarating. "Lars has the hottest girl at the party," says Oliver. "He’s proud of her and he’s proud of himself. He’s never been able to be in a room with so many people talking to him. He’s got a girlfriend and as strange as he is, he’s just like everybody else. It’s a night of beautiful fulfillment for him." For the cast and director Craig Gillespie, this critical scene was nerve-wracking. "It ends on this beautiful note where everybody is dancing and they’ve kind of forgotten about Lars," Gillespie says with a smile. "The initial curiosity is done with, everyone’s moved on, and he’s been accepted. Ryan had this idea of wanting to be there but in his own world with his eyes closed, dancing by himself. It makes perfect sense for his character, that he’s there but he’s still in his own space. And Ryan did it in the most beautiful way." Kelli Garner, who plays co-worker Margo recalls: "Oh, my god, that dance broke my heart. My Margo is so in love with Lars that when he does stuff like that it’s so endearing. It’s heartbreaking. It’s so sweet and pure. Ryan’s a magnificent actor." She describes her character Margo as "the quirky, kooky female doppelganger of Lars, she more than anyone understands what Bianca’s purpose is." Writer Nancy Oliver was full of praise for Mortimer, confirming what many cinemagoers feel about the talented London born actress. "Emily has such a wonderful, open quality to her. At the same time she has a real strength and presence to her that to me is very much part of the character of Karin. From the very first scene when she invites Lars for breakfast, her directness and her love for him is so clear and simple and unsentimental." Now I know all of you want to know where the inspiration for such a film came from. Well, here's how it all started. When about the inspiration for "Lars and the Real Girl", writer Nancy Oliver recalls, "I’ve had many weird jobs during the course of which I often wander around the Internet." It was here Oliver came across RealDoll, a company based near San Diego that manufacturers lifelike 'anatomically correct' silicone sex dolls. "These dolls were so bizarre they stuck in my head, because you can totally see the reason for them. How many people do you know who can’t operate with real human beings? That’s a large part of Lars’ journey: he’s been so deprived of female companionship and mother love, he’s hungry for that kind of comfort and softness." Synopsis

When Lars Lindstrom introduces his brother Gus and sister in law Karin to his new friend Bianca, who he met on the internet, their immediate response is shock and disbelief. Has Lars, the sweet, socially challenged introvert gone completely mad? When they meet Bianca all they see is a doll. Lars on the otherhand, sees a friend. Bianca isn’t a real woman at all but a Real Doll. How will they explain this to the residents of the sleepy Midwestern town in which they grew up in and currently reside? Karin and Gus consult the town’s family physician, Dr Dagmar Berman, who advises them to go along with it. Lars is experiencing a delusion and in order to help him through this crisis, they and the townsfolk need to get onboard. Soon Bianca is attending church, modeling at the local dress shop, volunteering at the hospital and accompanying Lars to his first ever social events. When will it all stop?

The Verdict "Hang on, before you go thinking that this is just a disgusting, filthy sex film, think again. It must be pretty harmless because here in Australia "Lars And The Real Girl" is rated PG and in the states it only received a PG-13 rating. What I can tell you is this: "It's a really funny film." It's definitely not a film for wowsers or protesting religious freaks, so they can steer clear. In fact, this film is about community spirit. About getting behind someone who's in need. Of accepting they have a problem and helping them to get through it by finding the right answers with tolerance and perseverance. While the critics are somewhat divided, most, like myself, agree that "Lars And The Real Girl" is very funny and highly entertaining. There are moments in the film which will reduce some people to tears of laughter. The cast are sensational especially Bianca, the Real Girl who was manufactured by the RealDoll Company in San Diego, California's second largest city. Gosling, Mortimer and Garner give noteworthy performances but it is Clarkson and Schneider who really standout. It's quirky. It's queer. It's fun. Very Recommended. 4 STARS." Who's Who?

Ryan Gosling Emily Mortimer Paul Schneider Kelli Garner Patricia Clarkson Nancy Beatty R.D. Reid Joe Bostick Liz Gordon Nicky Guadagni Doug Lennox Karen Robinson Maxwell McCabe-Lokos Billy Parrott Sally Cahill Angela Vint Liisa Repo-Martell Darren Hynes Víctor Gómez Tommy Chang Arnold Pinnock Joshua Peace Aurora Browne Alec McClure Tannis Burnett Lauren Ash Lindsey Connell

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Lars Lindstrom Karin Lindstrom Gus Lindstrom Margo Dagmar Mrs Gruner Reverend Bock Mr Shaw Mrs Schindler Mrs Petersen Mr Hofstedtler Cindy Kurt Erik Deb Sandy Laurel Moose Hector Nelson Baxter Jerry Lisa Steve Nurse Amy Holly Victoria

Run Time 106 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - Rialto - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.