Lars and the Real Girl - B+

In theaters. Rated PG-13, 106 minutes. Trailer.

In the spirit of Norman Bates, Lars and the Real Girl explores the manifestation of mommy issues in a lonely and slightly delusional man. The inanimate object in this film isn't a stuffed version of Lars' mother, instead it is a high end 'sex doll'.

Despite its lowest common demoninator marketing, this film was surprisingly touching and well made, with some great dialogue along the way. Lars is a self-sufficient but odd late 20's man living in the detached garage at his deceased parents' house, currently occuppied by his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider) and Gus' recently impregnated wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer). Lars' mother died during his birth, and his father never could get over his broken heart to be a good father to Lars and Gus. After Gus left (at his first opportunity) Lars was left alone with his father. All of this is told or implied along the course of the film.

Karin's pregnancy stirs up Lars' buried mother/abandonment issues and he begins to withdraw from Karin and everyone else. When a co-worker (a Garreth like guy with a porn fetish) shows him a site featuring life like sex dolls, Lars privately orders one. He then develops a delusion whereby he believes she is real and he converses with her and doesn't acknowledge anyone questioning her as his girlfriend Bianca. At this point, I was assuming the movie would devolve into a stupid schlockfest with sex doll jokes and cheap laughs, but that didn't happen. The northern town embraces her as a proxy for their love for Lars, and he visits Dr. Dagmar the local family practice doc with a psychiatry degree ("up this far north, you almost have to") ostensibly for Bianca's treatments, but in reality for a diagnosis of Lars.

The film reveals Lars' psychosis and his mommy issues in several ways, and shows the impact of loneliness on Lars. Lars feels actual pain when his skin is touched by other people, and his desire for immortality in the females in his life drives him inward. Begrudgingly, I am a fan of Ryan Gosling. He is a former Mouseketeer and his success has come very easily so far. The Notebook is great, Fracture is pretty good, and he is great in Half Nelson. In Lars and the Real Girl, he turns in a nuanced and understated performance that is perfect for the role.

Paul Schneider is absolutely great as Lars' reluctant and dumbfounded older brother, giving a textured performance with great delivery of his lines. Patricia Clarkson is okay as Dagmar, as is Emily Mortimer as the maternal sister-in-law. Kelli Garner is great as Margot, the sheepish flesh and blood love interest for Lars.

Written by first timer Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock??), this was surprisingly good. There are several touching moments and hemanages to thread the needle on the tone of the film, carefully avoiding campy or melodramatic deftly along the way. He also uses light blue knitting as a matronly signal (keyed off a(but not obvious) blanket made by Lars' mother that he carries all the time) and the bleakness of the landscape to fill in the story. But for a couple of 'too cute' Bianca montages, this would've been an A-.