Angel Plasticus

Once upon a time I was a child. No overwhelming insight there, but during my childhood I began to become a film buff. As a young man I became a professional actor, toiling through the Professional Actor's Training Program set up at the University of Washington's Drama Department, which led to an internship of sorts at ACT Seattle and the Seattle Repertory Theater, which led to moving to Los Angeles, which led to the demise of my fledgling career, which led to the beginning of a new career as a special education teacher. When I was stiff wet between the ears, and buddy John Hartl was written film reviews for the UofW student newspaper, he advised me to switch my major to Journalism, and become a movie critic like he was becoming, and certainly became. No, I said, for my ticket had a bigger destination on it; Hollywood. Yeah, well that's another story, for another time. For now let's launch into my first film review for this blog, for this moment.

Glenn

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007)

ANGEL PLASTICUS

Director Craig Gillespie espouses a New York state of mind, after directing very successful commercials for over 16 years. He was born in Sydney , Australia , and he graduated from a NYC Art School . His first feature film, MR. WOODCOCK (2007), tanked at the box office even though it starred Billy Bob Thornton, and Susan Sarandon.
It is possible that the movie released was not his director’s cut, or his vision? The LA Times reported that David Dobkin was “brought in” to direct 3 weeks of re-shoots. Considering that most comedies of this ilk are shot in a month, it makes one wonder how much of Gillespie’s film was left intact. Regardless, he has sprung back with a vengeance finishing up and releasing his second feature, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007). It was shot in just 31 days. Gillespie had a momentary career as an actor in 1997, doing a walk on in HOTEL DE LOVE. He presently enjoys a reputation as an “actor friendly” kind of director, and he certainly managed to get wonderful performances from his entire cast on LARS.

Michael Koresky of INDIE WIRE wrote, “LARS does offer its own small pleasures, from Gillespie’s delicate direction, which lovingly evokes a midwinter atmosphere of hushed sunlight and snow, to terrific supporting turns from his excellent cast.”

Alissa Simon of VARIETY wrote, “ Helmer Craig Gillespie’s sweetly off-kilter film plays like a Coen Brothers riff on Garrison Keillor’s LAKE WOEBEGONE tales, defying its lurid premise with a gentle comic drama grounded in reality. Although well-acted by a name cast, the offbeat subject matter and idiosyncratic tone make it arthouse material. Skedded for a limited release Stateside, it should have a longer life in ancillary, and could serve as a niche item for offshore distributors.”

James Berardinelli of REELVIEWS wrote, “Taking this film seriously, it is still nothing less than absurd, and the filmmakers know that. Such recognition is the key to debut director Craig Gillespie’s success because he understands how to get the audience to the place where they embrace the characters and believe their situations rather than laugh at them. Gillespie is not afraid of laughter and tears, and he orchestrates their merger with complete confidence. The film takes a lot of chances, and succeeds mostly because they all work.”

LARS was written by Nancy Oliver. She is a playwright, like Alan Ball another playwright that worked with her on the HBO series SIX FEET UNDER. She has what I consider an excellent ear for realistic dialogue. She has written a script for LARS where every character is important, necessary, and integral to the whole—pregnant with drama, humor, and the best kinds of human interaction. She and director Gillespie took a subject matter that easily could have lurched into a downward spiral of crudeness that would have made the Farrelly Brothers giddy. Remarkably, sensitively, no character in LARS is made a fool of, is forced to clown around or burlesque the situation, and is not ever expected to sink into a trite and crass caricature that must spew smut for smirks. Regardless of a lackluster trailer, or an “iffy” choice of plot device, understand that there is never anything scatological about LARS. Its inherent decency outshines its odd and unique turn of events.

Roger Ebert wrote, “There are so many ways LARS could have gone wrong that one of the film’s fascinations is how adroitly it sidesteps them. Its weapon is absolute sincerity. It is about who Lars is, and how he relates to this substitute for human friendship –and that’s all it’s about. It has a kind of purity to it. Yes, it’s rated PG-13, and that is the correct rating, I believe. I could inspire conversations between young children and their parents about masturbation, loneliness, acceptance of unusual people, empathy.”

This interesting and clever film brings up issues of “normalcy”, and can or should imagination run rampant be allowed to transcend shyness and insecurity and internal turmoil? Actors do it all the time. Can projection, or acting, be incorporated into every day minutia? Is there room in our own lives for a deeper understanding of these things? I would hope so. This area of interest has been mined extensively in movies, but LARS has found new territory, high ground, hidden valleys of emotion for us to tread. It brings to mind some other fine films, like Francis Ford Coppola’s THE RAIN PEOPLE (1969), ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975), RAINMAN (1988), DOMINICK AND EUGENE (1988), WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (1993), BENNY AND JOON (1993), THE OTHER SISTER (1999), and I AM SAM (2001); and more, many more –but LARS AND THE REAL GIRL stands alone, and is more than worthy of our attention.

Ryan Gosling soars and shines in the lead role of Lars Lindstrom. Nominated for a Best Actor Oscar last year for HALF NELSON (2006), he seems to get better with every film role that comes his way –not bad for an actor who was a Mouseketeer with Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. His Lars is both heartfelt and gut-wrenching, done miraculously without raising his voice. His internal monologue was crystal clear to him, and the camera lens catches it all, the back story, the pain, the fear, and ultimately the joy. His eyes mirror miles of unspoken history, and he was not out of character for even a millisecond. His Lars is a laconic loner who chooses to live in the family garage, who holds down a good and solid job, who attends church regularly, who dresses well and acts appropriately in public. He was not mentally ill; rather mentally still born, wound up as tight as a Rolex mainspring, a man who would rather sit in solitude than embrace “acceptable” levels of socialization.

Roger Ebert of THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES wrote,” We glimpse Lars’ inner world, one of hurt but also hidden hope. Nine actors out of ten would have (rightly) turned down this role, suspecting that it might be a minefield of bad laughs. Gosling’s work here is a study in control of tone. He isn’t too morose, too strange, too opaque, too earnest. The word for his behavior, so strange to the world, is serene. He loves his new friend, treats her courteously and expects everyone else to give her the same respect he does.”

Ryan Gosling was born in 1980 in Ontario , Canada . He grew up in a Mormon family, and was home-schooled by his mother. He was a Mouseketeer for two years in 1993, beating out 17,000 other youngsters for the job, and during that period lived with Justin Timberlake’s family in Los Angeles . Gosling is a singer, as he demonstrated just fooling around in the tree house scene in LARS, and he is an accomplished jazz guitarist; loves Chet Baker. His favorite actor is Gary Oldman. For a while he dated Sandra Bullock, whom he met on the set of MURDER BY NUMBERS (2002). His present girlfriend is Rachel McAdams, whom he met on the set of THE NOTEBOOK (2004). He has the distinction of being the only Canadian born performer who has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. He has managed 25 film appearances since 1993. He was “noticed” in REMEMBER THE TITANS (2000), was good and scary as skinhead Danny Balint in THE BELIEVER (2001); I liked his style working with Sandra Bullock in MURDER BY NUMBERS (2002), received good notices in THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND (2003), phoned in his performance and collected his pay for THE NOTEBOOK (2004), showed some promise in STAY (2005), was excellent in HALF NELSON (2006), also good with Anthony Hopkins in FRACTURE (2007), and now has blown our socks off in LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (2007).

James Berardinelli wrote, “Canadian-born Ryan Gosling, one of his country’s most prominent up-and-coming actors, is wonderful as Lars, playing the part completely straight. He’s moody and broody, but we understand much of his pain and can sympathize with him. Gosling understood how fragile Lars’ fairy tale world was, and he found the balance.”

Relative to LARS, Gosling said, “I think that something interesting comes out when you do something you’re afraid of. So I try to take things that I’m not sure I can do. And this work was certainly one of them. I didn’t feel that I was right for this, and wondered how I would find truth in a fairy tale.”

Lars’ brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and sister-in-law, Karin (Emily Mortimer) try repeatedly to draw Lars feet first out of his preferred loneliness. It is Karin mostly who leads the assault; tackling him in the snow to make a point, even though she is pregnant.
They feel that somehow Lars’ behavior reflects their “neglect”, and so they toil incessantly to drag Lars into the family unit. Lars resists, making promises and then breaking them, making up excuses and lying to friends and family that offer him opportunities to socialize. He only feels “safe” within himself, alone, where his active daydreams could endeavor to counter his dark nightmares. He habitually wore a scarf that had been his baby blanket.

Emily Mortimer, a British actress, was very good as the pregnant and concerned sister-in-law. It did not occur to her that Lars feared for her safety, and was made nervous in her presence. She forgot that Lars’ mother had died giving birth to him. He had been raised with a father who became indifferent, taciturn, shut off and shut down. Her Emily was fresh-faced and hormonal, reaching out to Lars. It was at her insistence that Bianca was initially accepted, and it was her influence that sustained it. Mortimer has had 42 film appearances since 1995; much of it on British television. I remember her fondly in one of my favorite films, THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS (1996), and she was in ELIZABETH (1998), with Cate Blanchett, and NOTTING HILL (1999) with Hugh Grant, Disney’s THE KID (2000), with Bruce Willis, THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY (2003), and BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS (2005).

Paul Schneider was likewise wonderful as brother, Gus. This is a man who fled the home as soon as he could, escaping the silence and the sadness, leaving Lars to be immersed in it, and to be enveloped by it. When their father died, and they inherited the house, Lars chose to set up his apartment in the garage. Gus did not really tune into why Lars preferred to be alone. He was self-absorbed enough that he really did not recognize the magnitude of the problem; that took Emily to bring to his attention. Leaving early as he did, he salvaged some normalcy, but he was left scarred and somewhat inarticulate by his childhood too. Schneider has appeared in 13 films since 2000. He was in ELIZABETH TOWN (2005), THE FAMILY STONE (2005), and LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (2006).

One day, perhaps tired of the constant cajoling, Lars announced that he now had a “girlfriend” named Bianca, from Brazil , who spoke very little English, and used a wheelchair. Then he brought her in, carrying in his arms a very expensive anatomically-correct helium-filled sex doll, a silicone Sally, and he placed it on the couch next him. He immediately began to talk to her as if she were real, imagining her verbal responses and sharing them. In one of the film’s most hilarious scenes, after overcoming the initial shock of this situation, Gus and Karin feel compelled to go along with the “illusion”, the fantasy; not seeing it as a ruse, which it might have been. After a few days of this pretense, Gus confronted Lars, informing him that Bianca was not “real”. Lars never wavered, paid no attention to him –gave him no reaction at all. So Gus shrugged and returned to his part in the active fantasy.

To assist Gosling in staying in character, the real doll was treated like an actual person on the set, the same as the characters do in the movie. She was dressed privately in her own trailer. She was only brought out and was present for those scenes she was actually in.

Through deft direction, artful and clever writing, and terrific acting, we soon witness every character in the story “accept” Bianca as a sentient being, interact with her, and fully integrate her presence, and the notion that Lars and Bianca were a couple, into their daily lives, into the daily goings-on within the community. By virtue of this loving gesture, they soon see Lars, for the first time, reaching out and beginning to shed part of his emotional shell. The “couple” join in and attend parties, church, volunteer at the hospital, and at the school, get involved with the PTA. Children especially love Bianca. Soon she becomes the town “sweetheart”, and townsfolk are picking her up for her volunteer work and appointments, like at the beauty shop, by herself. Lars is no longer required to accompany her, and at first this really incensed him. But the largest miracle of this movie is by mid-point we the viewers began to accept Bianca as real. Several times in scenes I swore I saw her head turn slightly, or her eyelashes flicker. When Lars began to realize that he, too, could relate to others without Bianca in attendance, he began to formulate a plan. It was time for Bianca to go, to leave, and her death was the only “real” solution.

Lars: You don’t care.
Karin: We don’t care? We do care!
Lars: No you don’t.
Karin: That is just not true! God! Every person in this town bends over backward to make Bianca feel at home. Why do you think she has so many places to go and so much to do? Huh? Huh? Because of you! Because all these people love you! We push her wheelchair. We drive her to work. We drive her home. We wash her. We dress her. We get her up and we put her to bed. We carry her, and she is not that petite, Lars. Bianca is a big, big girl! None of this is easy, for any of us—but we do it…Oh! We do it for you! So don’t you dare tell me we don’t care!

Lars: I was talking to Bianca, and she was saying that in her culture they have these rites of passage and rituals and ceremonies, and just all kinds of things that, when you do them, go through them, let you know that you’re an adult. Doesn’t that sound great?
Gus: It does.
Lars: How’d you know?
Gus: How’d I know what?
Lars: That you were a man.
Gus: Ahhh –I couldn’t tell you.
Lars: Was it –okay, was it sex?
Gus: Um, yeah, yeah, it’s uh, yeah kind of sex, but it’s not, uh, you know? I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s a good question, uh, a good question.
Lars: Yeah, but I have to know.
Gus: (dryer buzzes) Hold that thought.
Gus: (then in the basement) You know, you could ask Dagmar.
Lars: I did ask Dagmar, and she said that I should ask you.
Gus: Okay, but you know I can only give you my opinion.
Lars: That’s what we want.
Gus: Well, it’s not like you are one thing or the other, okay? There’s still a kid inside, but you grow up when you decide to do right, okay, and not just what’s right for you –what’s right for everybody, even if it hurts.
Lars: Okay, like what?
Gus: Like, you know, like, you don’t jerk people around, you know, and you don’t cheat on your woman, and you take care of your family, you know, and you admit when you’re wrong, or you try to anyways. That’s all I can think of, you know –it sounds like it’s easy, but for some reason it’s not.

Patricia Clarkson, always reliable, was solid, engaging, warm, and lonely as Dagmar, the town doctor –who also happened to be a psychologist. “All doctors have to have a background in psychology to work this far North,” Karin said early on.
Dagmar: Don’t you want to be an uncle?
Lars: Don’t you want to be a mom?
Dagmar: (pauses, whispers) Yes, but I’m not able to have children of my own. Yes, and sometimes I get so lonely that I forget what day it is, and how to spell my name.

Gus: Keep pretending that she’s real? I’m just not going to do it.
Dagmar: She is real.
Gus: Well…
Dagmar: She’s right out there in the waiting room.
Gus: Right, right, I get that, but I’m just not gonna, you know…
Dagmar: You won’t be able to change his mind, anyway. Bianca’s in town for a reason.
Gus: But, but…
Dagmar: It’s not really a choice.
Karin: Okay, okay, all right, we’ll do it, whatever it takes.
Gus: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, and everyone’s gonna laugh at him.
Dagmar: And you.

Dagmar: So, tell me about Karin. I don’t know her very well.
Lars: Oh, she’s wonderful. Gus and I are very lucky with women; she’s wonderful. But she…
Dagmar: That’s okay, let’s find you something to read.
Lars: No. It’s just…between us, right?
Dagmar: Of course.
Lars: I’m worried about her. I think she has a little problem.
Dagmar: Oh, well, maybe you shouldn’t tell me.
Lars: No, that’s okay. It’s just, and I think it’s because she’s insecure. It’s just, she is just always trying to hug everybody. You know, some people don’t like that. Some people do not like to be hugged. But she doesn’t realize that. She takes it personally, and it hurts her feelings. I don’t know what to do about that. Do you?
Dagmar: It’s such a comfort sometimes, just to have someone’s arms around you. Don’t you think?
Lars: No!
Dagmar: It feels good.
Lars: It does not feel good. It hurts.
Dagmar: Oh, like a cut, or a bruise?
Lars: Like a burn. Like when you go outside and your feet freeze and you come back in and then they thaw out? It’s like that. It’s almost exactly like that.
Dagmar: The same with everyone?
Lars: Uh, not really with Bianca –but everyone else.

Kelli Garner played Margo, a lonely co-worker with ticks and needs of her own, who kept trying to get Lars interested in her, and her performance was touching and effective. Nancy Beatty played Mrs. Gruner, a nice neighbor, who stole every scene she was in as a no-nonsense loving presence. R.D. Reid was also quite good as Reverend Bock, who facilitated the entering in of the fantasy.

Reverend Bock: (at Bianca’s funeral) Lars asked us not to wear black today. He did so to remind us that this is no ordinary funeral. We are here to celebrate Bianca’s extraordinary life. From her wheelchair, Bianca reached out and touched us all, in ways we could never have imagined. She was a teacher. She was a lesson in courage. And Bianca loved us all. Especially Lars. Especially him.

Michael Koresky of INDIE WIRE wrote, “There is no denying that this film’s defiantly good nature comes as something of a refresher, especially given that the oddball subject matter would normally be exploited for gross-out gags.”

James Berardinelli wrote, “Gillespie navigates the tightrope so well that he doesn’t even need a balancing pole. The shifts in tone between comedy and serious material are adroitly handled. We never feel like we are being jerked around, or that the film has stumbled on the unevenness of its terrain. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL hits all the right notes. This offbeat independent picture could become one of those big little fall surprises.” Remember NAPOLEON DYNAMITE ?

Kenneth Turan of the LOS ANGELES TIMES wrote, “Screenwriter Nancy Oliver, director Craig Gillespie, and a top cast have constructed a Frank Capra fable, a throwback tribute to the joys of friendship, and community –around a sex toy. Taking one of the most salacious items modern culture can provide as their centerpiece, they have created the sweetest, most innocent, most enjoyable film around.”

Roger Ebert wrote, “How this film finally works out is deeply satisfying. Only after the movie is over do you realize what a balancing act it was, what risks it took, what rewards it contains. A character says at one point that she has grown to like Bianca. So, heaven help us, have we. If we can feel that way about a new car, what not about a lonely man’s way to escape from sitting alone in the dark?”

This film tugged hard at my heart strings. By the roll of the ending credits one could hear sniffling aplenty on all sides. We take serious all the transitions that Lars endures and induces as a 27 year old man boy; issues of when does one become “grown up”, and what exactly does it mean to “be a man”. We discovered what it was that created the sadness within him, that shut him off from others –and we smiled and silently cheered as he resisted it, refocused it, pushing it aside as he moved on toward a more meaningful life. For some viewers this movie might seem to be an adult fairy tale, too precious for serious consumption. Yes, we could see the “feel good” ending approaching, but alas we were happy to welcome it.

Glenn Buttkus 2007