2007 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 46 min
Director: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson
This movie could have been a total farce or completely tasteless. But somehow, Ryan Gosling falling in love with a plastic sex doll that he things is a real Brazillian girl named Bianca is.... sweet. I don't know how they did that. My head is still spinning.
Anyway, he's lonely and isolated and really, really awkward. His brother and sister-in-law do everything they can to help him out, but Lars needs to get that help himself. He orders a doll online and from the moment she shows up, he's treating her like a "real girl." She even gets her own bedroom and rides around in a wheelchair.
And although Gosling's performance does much to transform this movie from would-be farce to true heartwarming story, it's not even him that has the biggest impact. What's more amazing is how the people in town react. Totally committed to playing along until Lars deals with his unaddressed anxieties/problems/depression/weird plastic doll affair, they just help him keep up the charade. Before you know it, Bianca's quite the social butterfly and Lars is coming out of his shell.
Then when Lars is finally ready to say goodbye, they let him do what he needs to do. By then, it's not just playing along anymore, his friends and family and neighbors are truly attached. It affects them all in a really beautiful way.
I'm so glad this isn't a tasteless sex comedy and a guy who fantasizes that his plastic doll is real. This is so much better.
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