I was one of the few that had put off watching this film until now.  I was afraid of over-sentimentality and it looked like it could easily turn into a cliche movie.  However, I was pleasantly surprised that the heart within this movie never turned sour.

The basic premise is that you got a introverted recluse who is afraid of human contact–so much so that he chooses to fall in love with a life-size sex doll and treat her as a real girl.  However, instead of the whole town shunning him, they accept his odd choice and embrace him with love.  Everyone in the town plays along and they all treat “Bianca” as a real person.

What’s good about it: The performances.  Very quite and real and Gosling knocks it out of the park (I have really enjoyed his work over the years).  Everyone in the cast knew the tight rope they were walking and that if they ever strayed into forced humor or sentimentality then the whole movie would have really crashed.  They countered this by being completely sincere in everything they did.  It becomes a human story, one that we all can connect with.  We all know a Lars in our life, and this movie shows the power of acceptance and love.

What’s not so good:  Some people dog the performances as being wooden and lifeless.  I disagree, I think we are so used to attention grabbing “big-moment” scenes that we are not content as an audience to let a film simply wash over us and discuss it later.  It was a bit of a leap to believe that everyone in the town would accept Lars’ delusion.  At what point do we say, “This is unhealthy and he needs to stop.”  They ask this question at the beginning, but that question gives way to their love for Lars–but I kept asking that question.  Yes, it might be good for him to work through his personal demons in this way, but at what cost.  Some people never come out of a delusional state such as that, and the endorsement of the delusion can sometimes make it worse.

However, what I enjoyed is that it made us question these things.  What would we do in that situation?  Films should allow us to ask these questions ourselves and leave us to determine what each of us would do.  It brings up similar questions of “why do we call a person ‘insane’, when is insanity simply just ‘individuality’, ect.”  I think the most brilliant part about this movie is that it can be watched by the whole family.  It is a great discussion movie and it is also a wonderful piece of art.