Lars and the Real Girl

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Lars and the Real Girl

PG-13

Released Oct 12, 2007

1h 47m

Comedy

Drama

Romance

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Popcornmeter

81%

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138 Reviews

84%

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100,000+ Ratings

Extremely shy Lars (Ryan Gosling) finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor (Patricia Clarkson), his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

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Critics Consensus

Lars and the Real Girl could've so easily been a one-joke movie. But the talented cast, a great script, and direction never condescends to its character or the audience.

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Deborah Ross

The Spectator

Lars and the Real Girl not only wimps out but has also, at its heart, a fake doll that may be the least fake thing in it.

Aug 23, 2018

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Liz Hoggard

London Evening Standard

The film is often very funny. The acting is first-class, especially Gosling, who never patronises his character.

Jan 11, 2018

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Andrea Gronvall

Time Out

Rated: 4/5

Nov 18, 2011

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

It's a heartfelt film, unexpectedly making us laugh at, yet feel for, the complex, damaged main character and his hopeful real-life romance.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 6, 2023

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Gayle Sequeira

BFI

Lars and the Real Girl is a tragicomic examination of male loneliness.

Jul 29, 2023

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…plays nicely with questions about how best to deal with delusion…

Rated: 4/5

Jul 20, 2023

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Gerardo V

FUNNY BUT SINCERE COMEDY. The consensus RT put out matches it perfectly. could've been the usual 2000s lowball comedy, but instead they actually tell a story that interesting and at times sad, it reminds us that in reality, there are many people just like Lars.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/04/24

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Thomas G

My wife made me pick a romance for us to see - so I chose this movie. It was a beautifully done movie☺️

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/09/24

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Jerod S

Gosling is a talented guy - playing an incredible socially awkward guy that lives in the garage with a fake doll. It's gooey center is that his family and town love him - and he finds some sanity.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/21/24

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Dinos K

Brilliant movie, great performance by ryan gosling. The movie described my life

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

08/20/24

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Angelo H

Lars e a garota ideal é um filme que em sua sinopse pode parecer "simples e cômico", porém tem grande profundidade no roteiro abordando temas como saúde mental, arrependimentos e amor. Com boas atuações, uma ideia fora da caixa, que aliás, foi muito bem trabalhada, consegue emocionar e cativar conforme a história se desdobra.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/17/24

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Ram L

The reality of the trauma of loss isn’t dwelt upon; it’s nicely balanced out by the main guy never acting out. The weirdness of the premise is offset by the fact that we get used to it as we keep watching. The implausibility of the events as they unfold is... well, not bad enough to keep you from watching. What’s nerve-racking, though, is that you can’t ever figure what’s going on in the guy’s head. It doesn’t help that his half-smiles—more than a hundred of them from start to finish—are all exactly the same, with zero nuances. A guy who’s weird enough to internally pretend that a doll is a person... is also absolutely normal (he works in an office!) except for his interactions with the doll? People help out a disturbed guy, OK, but an entire town helps—with not one person saying anything to the effect of “he’s crazy”?

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

07/19/24

Full Review

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Craig Gillespie

Director

Ryan Gosling

Lars

Paul Schneider

Gus

Emily Mortimer

Karin

Patricia Clarkson

Dagmar

Kelli Garner

Margo

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Synopsis

Extremely shy Lars (Ryan Gosling) finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor (Patricia Clarkson), his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

Director: Craig Gillespie
Producer: Sarah Aubrey, John Cameron, Sidney Kimmel
Screenwriter: Nancy Oliver
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Rating: PG-13 (Some Sex-Related Content)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 12, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 17, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M
Runtime: 1h 47m

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