A description of the plot of Lars and the Real Girl will not do the film justice. Suffice it to say that Lars has a serious problem and the community in which he lives has an unexpected reaction to it. This reaction is portrayed in a manner that avoids condescension or naive sentimentality.The criticism I have read of this film is that it is unrealistic; that if similar events as the film depicts were to unfold in "real life" the inevitable result would be drastically different. I believe that this criticism is accurate. However, in my mind this is not a failing of the film but its triumph. In fact, it may even be its point. We don't treat one another in the way Lars and the Real Girl depicts. But the film gives us pause to consider, what might happen if we did?
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Great thoughts J.B.!
As I was watching the film I kept expecting it to go in a grittier and more perverse direction.
As far as I am concerned, this is not a strike against the movie, but a strike against me!
I think those who judge the movie for being unrealistic are resisting the ways that the movie acts as a judgment of our own sinfulness in not extending the kind of love to others that the town in Lars and the Real Girl does.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I would venture to say that the town in the movie is a fitting icon of the Church. I am awed and humbled by the behavior of the town, but most of all I am pleasantly and overwhelmingly surprised. The town/Church is more than I would have expected.
Peace.
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