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Living doll

Deborah Ross

Tuesday, 18th March 2008

Lars and the Real Girl
12A, Nationwide

As for Lars and his absolute horror of proper human contact, Dr Dagmar eventually gets to the bottom of this in that linear way which actually puts this indie film firmly in the Hollywood mainstream: i.e., it’s all down to an early childhood trauma. Here it is, see. And now we’ve located it, shall we get over it and be all normal? Oh, please. How many Ordinary Peoples does a cinema-goer need? The ‘Real Girl’, by the way, is Margo, who works in the same office as Lars, and who may or may not be able to take over where Bianca leaves off. What do you think?

As a comedy, there are a few good moments, but much is tiresomely repetitive, relying as it does on people’s reactions when they first meet Bianca or on panning out to see Bianca amid real folk: Bianca, with hymnal propped in hands, at church; that sort of thing. Still, it is generally well played, particularly by Schneider and Mortimer, yet possibly not by Gosling.

Although he has had a brilliant career so far, his Lars comes over as more sweet chump than damaged, lost soul, and his various conceits — the goofy, not-quite-there smile; his squeezed-up eyes when he goes off into a reverie — often seem to be just what they are: conceits. His is a Peter Sellers-in-Being There performance, which is fine, I suppose, except this is a film where the main character should be hurting. In short, Lars and the Real Girl not only wimps out but has also, at its heart, a fake doll that may be the least fake thing in it.