I Love "Lars and the Real Girl"

I'm in one of the cycles for watching movies and TV shows. Sometimes I am in the reading cycle, and I devour text, but that time is not now.

Last night we searched Netflix for a comedy. Chuck, my husband, prefers comedies. He deals with enough drama and tragedy, sometimes violence, and often heartache, in his job as a firefighter. So I watch those genres alone when he's at work.

We finally settled on a comedy, "Lars and the Real Girl." It's a 2007 film, and neither of us had seen it. It stars Ryan Gosling, and a life sized doll.

I'm going to keep this short, because there are plenty of reviews and plot explanations for this movie on various websites.

Lars is a different kind of guy, one who sticks to himself at work and in his personal time. He lives in the garage-turned-apartment behind his brother and sister-in-law's home. His sister-in-law is pregnant, and she is worried that Lars doesn't get out enough. Lars turns down her repeated invitations to have dinner with them in their home, just a few yards from his door.

His cubicle mate at work tries to show him a site online that offers customizable sex dolls, and Lars doesn't really want to look at it, or hear about it.

What at first seems like a movie that will be a true comedy turns out to be a funny, but heartwarming film. I really enjoyed it.

I expected one thing, but got a total surprise. I expected Lars to be fed up and get the doll as a way to shut everyone up, as if to say, "Fine, you want me to have a girlfriend, HERE'S the girlfriend, you bunch of meddling jerks."

But that isn't the case, and the movie is a mix of laughter and surprising human kindness all the way through to the final scene.

As the credits rolled, I imagined how it would be to live in a world like the community that rallied around Lars.

If you're a thinker, a person who is interested in human interaction, the perplexing work of the mind, and one who dreams of a world filled with people who support and love one another, this movie is going to deliver.

Of course I'm not getting paid to write this review, by Netflix or anyone else.
This one was a winner in my opinion.