Shiva Garshasbi

02-09-10

UNST Wall-E

Lars and the Real Girl Review

This week we were assigned to watch the movie “Lars and the Real Girl”. This movie was directed by Craig Gillespie, and written by Nancy Oliver. The story is about this very lonely, shy, and awkward guy named Lars Lindstrom who lives in a room behind his brother’s garage. His brother along with his sister-in-law, are concerned about him finding the right woman. Eventually Lars announces that he has indeed found a girl over the internet. To everyone’s shock and surprise, it turns out to be a lifelike doll he ordered from an adult website.

Thinking his brother is nuts, Gus convinces Lars to go to a psychologist. The psychologist then suggests that they treat the doll, named Bianca, like a real person. As time goes on Lars introduces “Bianca” to everyone in the town. And they all treat Bianca as if she were a real person, knowing about Lars’ mental state. As the people accept Bianca, Lars communicates and interacts with more and more people.

Eventually this leads to Lars meeting a real living girl named Margo, which is where the title of the movie comes from. As Margo and Lars become closer, one day Lars claims that Bianca is sick. Bianca is rushed to the hospital and the news isn’t very good. Eventually she does die, and the entire town shows up to her funeral. And Margo and Lars find solace in each other.

I think since the idea of Bianca being alive was all in Lars’ head, when he became attached to Margo, he did realize to some extent that Bianca was in fact not as real as he believes, and indeed cannot fulfill Lars’ emptiness, and need for a companion who understands him. So in order to be with the real girl that he wanted, he needed to let go of the idea of Bianca.

At first some people might think that this movie is a complete comedy. And in most points it is. But what is different about this movie is, a sex doll is being used not for its intended purpose, but for love and companionship. There are some awkward scenes where the reactions of the different people are just hilarious, but they don’t stay so skeptical. They adapt and change.

This film was so touching. The way that the entire community change and evolved itself in order to accommodate Lars’ emotions was so sweet. Instead of treating him like a crazy person and ignoring him or casting him aside, they played along and treated his doll like a real person in hopes that he truly does find the happiness they think he deserves.

This film definitely shows how people can love, and how God’s love shows through us all. At first people were skeptical, but they loved Lars, and they wanted him to be happy, no matter how he went about gaining his happiness. They accepted him and Bianca, just as God accepts us, no matter how messed up we might be.