Lars and the Real Girl Review

The more I watch of both Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds, the more my mind fuses them together into this awful mixture of poor quality of films on Gosling’s part and a lack of charisma on behalf of Reynolds. It makes me sound like I’m not a fan of either, when in actual fact I don’t mind either of them. Gosling has always struck me as a rather interesting performer, his mute, motionless face appears in a great number of engaging works. From Drive to Crazy, Stupid, Love and, to be honest, those are the only films I’ve wholly enjoyed him in, he presents a face devoid of any emotion. Blade Runner 2049, La La Land, The Big Short and The Ides of March all have the same problem. It does put me off of his roles a bit, and it’s a strange thing to open up a review of the forgotten film Lars and the Real Girl with, but it’s worth mentioning for the sheer fact that his role as Lars Lindstrom, a man who marries a blow-up sex doll, is his finest role.

It’s the one that feels like it has the most emotion put into it on the whole. A somewhat interesting character that you can’t exactly connect with, while at the same time you’re not rooting for their failure either. You’re stuck in the middle, pulled through an achingly solid comedy from I, Tonya director Craig Gillespie. The only script penned by Nancy Oliver, the pairing of writer, director and actor depicts a rather strange chemistry, elevating Lars and the Real Girl above anything it should possibly aspire to be.

Gosling’s leading role offers up a serving of hilarity, not just from his appearance and the absurdness of the situation, but also because of how tragic his character is. Frankly, it’s his best role to date. The efforts of the small village Lars lives see the townsfolk adapt rather easily to the sudden marriage of man and plastic doll. Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider lead the supporting cast through a great number of effective and enjoyable scenes. They provide a nice balance between completely bewildered but also strangely accepting of the trauma Lars heaves his way through. It’s a tremendously difficult balance to get, but the drama and comedy play off of one another with relative success.

Most American comedies I’ve encountered from around this period are light on the laughter and heavy on cameo appearances, shoddy one-liners and winks to the camera with all the subtle nature of having a wrecking ball crash through your television screen. It’s nice to see that there are a few diamonds in the rough, with Lars and the Real Girl giving me a tremendously tiny flicker of hope that there are more American comedies out there with the same unique ideas and strong comedic timing. I have not yet lost hope of finding another, but it has been quite some time since I laid eyes upon another comedy product from the United States that made me laugh as much as Gosling’s marriage to a sex doll did.