Lars and the Real Girl

In the movie Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling as Lars, the main character finds himself lost in his own reality. In this reality he believes that a doll, which he purchased online, is actually real. Lars' older brother, Gus, is very apprehensive when he realizes that Lars is delusional while his wife Karin is extremely worried for Lars' wellbeing. Both Karin and Gus are so concerned for Lars that they convince him to take Bianca, the doll, to the doctor for a routine checkup. The doctor, who is also a psychiatrist, diagnoses Bianca with low blood pressure and advises Lars to bring her in every week for treatments while she also tries to analyze Lars' condition. We later learn that Lars lost his mother due to complications during his birth and which caused his father to change from a loving father to a heartbroken, distant man. At first, Gus was one to admit that Lars' delusional behavior was not his fault whatsoever. He does not want to pretend that Bianca is real for the sake of Lars, but like everyone else in the community he soon comes around.

Like Gus, the townspeople were taken aback by the whole situation and did not want anything to do with Bianca. They all assumed Lars was using her for his own personal sexual pleasures, which is far from the truth. I believe that this is the most provocative part of the film and it is mentioned quite often. Lars and Bianca never have any sexual encounters but because she is built like a real woman everyone believed otherwise. After some time, however, the entire town accepts Bianca into the community and treats her just as Lars would want her to be treated, like a real woman. Bianca now has formed quite the social life helping out at the hospital, getting makeovers from the local beautician, and being involved in other volunteer programs. I find this to be the most interesting part of the film. The entire town welcomes a doll with open arms just to help a man who has suffered from a tragic childhood. It is so heartwarming and refreshing to see a group of people come together to help one of their own. Bianca helps Lars interact more with the locals and even spends time with a fellow coworker, Margo, who obviously fancies him. Lars' change in character begins to unfold once he hears about Margo's new boyfriend. You can begin to sense a little jealously in Lars, an emotion that is never expressed by him before.

Lars later has a conversation with Gus, which I think is one of the most important parts of the movie, about what it is to be a man. Gus responds with, "You grow up when you decide to do right, and not what's right for you, what's right for everybody even when it hurts. It sounds like it's easy but for some reason it's not." Gus' explanation seems to hit Lars pretty hard and his dependence on Bianca seems to take a turn. Gus went from being convinced that nothing was his fault from reminiscing events from their