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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 20 March 2008

Ryan Gosling

Gosling shows why he’s no dummy in doll love story

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Directed by CRAIG GILLESPIE
Certificate 12a

A sweet-sour drama about a loser who orders a life-sized rubber doll through the internet and makes her his life’s companion is actually a rather quirky and ultimately touching emotional essay.
Odd? I’ll say. But for painfully shy office worker Lars (Ryan Gosling), the doll he calls Bianca is the only thing to whom he can relate as he sits alone in a cabin in the backyard of the family home, having lost both his parents and any reason for living normally.
For a start he can’t bear the touch of another human being.
The house is occupied by his brother (Paul Schneider) and pregnant sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) who do their best to bring him back into the family fold.
They even accept his new companion when Lars brings her into the house for dinner in a wheelchair, excusing her for not talking or eating.
The twist is that Lars doesn’t use Bianca for sex – merely as a companion.
He takes her everywhere, even to church: for him it’s unconditional love, no questions, no criticism. And, from her, no touching.
Ryan Gosling turns in a stellar performance to make his character even remotely credible.
As someone remarks: “If you can feel that way about a car, why not about a lonely man’s way to escape from sitting alone in the dark?”

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