By: Alivia Rhodes and Alyssa Pittman
The 2007 film Lars and the Real Girl, directed by Craig Gillespie, and starring Ryan Gosling, follows Lars, a kind hearted, yet shy and socially awkward young man who falls in love with a doll. The film’s themes follow Lars’ struggle with mental health, as well as his family and friends struggle to accept his strange tendencies brought along because of his reserved nature.
Lars is a sweet, but socially awkward and reclusive young man who lives in the garage of his family’s home in a small Northern town. He lives with his brother, Gus, as well as his brother’s pregnant wife, Karin, who believes that Lars needs to be taken care of and helped out of his shell. One day, Lars tells Gus and Karin that he has a visitor, a woman, and asks if she could stay in their home, claiming she’s religious and they can’t live together. Karin eagerly accepts, and the two are exhilarated about the prospect of Lars branching out, only to find themselves sitting face to face with a lifelike doll that Lars found online and named Bianca. The family is concerned and takes him to a psychologist, who claims that Lars is having a delusion from so much time being isolated and that they need to just go along with it, and eventually, he will overcome his issue. After a meeting, not only do Gus and Karin go along with it, but the community does as well, out of their love for Lars. Eventually Bianca becomes a beloved figure in the community, and Lars seems to come more and more out of his shell. When Bianca falls ill and then later passes away, the town mourns, but it leads Lars to come out of his delusion and to become less socially withdrawn, allowing people to show how much they loved and cared for him.
Faculty hall was less crowded than usual, scholars were hesitant about attending the film because of the seemingly “weird” nature of it. Scholars were pleasantly surprised at the moving film demonstrating how a community can come together even in the craziest of times to support someone they love. Those who attended the film say it was a very memorable movie and shocked them on how good the movie was. This movie being Jen’s pick was confusing at first. Although, after watching, it gives insight on how the human mind can work in weird yet wonderful ways. The movie required scholars to think about what was happening in the film and assess how the world around Lars was working. In total, to wrap up our amazing Classic Film Series, this movie was truly one of a kind, opening many minds and hearts to the touching story of Lars and his community.