What is Lars and The Real Girl?
Lars and The Real Girl is a 2007 drama-comedy movie. It follows the brothers
Lars Lindstrom and
Gus Lindstrom, and Gus' wife,
Karin. The movie follows Lars romantic, yet nonsexual, relationship with a life-sized sex doll; the movie was inspired by photographer Elena Dorfman's work "
Still Lovers".
The Plot.
Lars' mother died during his birth, and it's stated that the brothers father was absent due to this. Lars struggles with the loss of his mother and developes an irrational fear of death during childbirth. As a result, he exhibits touch adversion—stating that people's touch burn—causing social awkwardness and isolation. This is only amplified by Gus' pregnant wife, Karin.
One evening, Lars announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the internet and beliving it to be a real person, Gus and Karin invite them over for dinner. Once they discover that Bianca is actually a lifelike doll they worry about his mental health. Gus and Karin convince him to go the doctor under the guise of making sure Bianca is okay. They see the family doctor, Dagmar Berman, who is also a psychologist. Dr. Berman diagnoses Lars with a delusion and convinces the rest of the town go along with his delusion.
Budget & Box Office.
Lars and The Real Girl written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie, and had a budget of $12 million but was a commerical failure by only grossing $11 million. Despite this, it was praised highly by critics and has an average score 7.2/10. It's most likely that the awkward premise of the movie may have put many people off.
