"Lars and the Real Girl" Plants a Real Heart

Genres: Comedy and Drama
Running Time: 1 hr. 46 min.
Release Date: October 12th, 2007 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sex-related content.
Distributors: MGM Distribution Company

Directed by: Craig Gillespie

JJ Rating: A-

Lars (Ryan Gosling) is an introverted kind person who does not have much contact with the outside world other than his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and Gus's wife Karin (Emily Mortimer). Until one day he gets a box that opens a new word for not only him but everyone who loves and cares for him. Lars and the Real Girl.

Bianca is the "real girl""and she is treated like a real girl by everyone in the movie. The actors did a fantastic job treating her as if she were real. Of course they had to pretend to pretend that she was real for their parts but they did a good job because if you see the movie and you don't like it, it won't be because you think it was cheesy. Because they do such a great job at convincing everyone that they believe she's real as much as Lars believes she's real that it's hard not to believe as well. If you're not to like the movie then that will be because you don't like the story as a whole, not because of the "real girl".

The story is touching because the entire town pretends she is real just because they really like Lars and are hoping that by doing this they were helping Lars. Lars also learns a lot about how everyone else thinks since he fails to do so without the real girl.

Ryan Gosling does a fantastic job as Lars and has the ticks and smile down pat. It makes him the character and I forgot the confident person he was in The Notebook. Emily Mortimer does a good job with her facial expressions because she has a lot of them during the movie from compassion to anger and they add roundness to her character that would be bland without them. Paul Schneider is the brother and he has a moment where he states how much he cares about Lars and he makes it real and touching.