Plot Points: "Lars and the Real Girl"

First, let me start by saying that I was utterly, utterly charmed by Lars and the Real Girl, the new movie starring adorable Ryan Gosling as a sadsack office worker and much-ignored younger brother whose yearning for affection leads him to order an inflatable sex doll. He then asks the world to accept "Bianca" as his girlfriend. And because Lars's world is a small, lakeside Wisconsin town where people are maybe just a little tetched to begin with, the citizenry gladly accommodates him.

[Warning! From here on in, I'm going to divulge key plot plots.]

Given the premise and the fact that Lars was written by Nancy Oliver, a former Six Feet Under writer, I had no expectation that the movie would be realistic. I was looking for a film with fantasy and comedy and a sprinkling of pathos, and that's what I got. The cast is so totally winning and the jokes are so wonderfully screwball (Bianca quickly becomes more popular than Lars, of course, and gets a makeover from his sister-in-law Karin's friends) that the film works, I think.

But there's one scene that has stuck with me and not in a good way. Late in the movie, Bianca becomes sick, which is to say that Lars runs around the house screaming about her illness. His brother Gus and Karin, who are by this point inured to the crazy relationship, struggle to respond correctly. In the emotion of the moment, Karin blurts out "Call 9-1-1." In the next scene, we see an ambulance driving to the hospital, with Lars's car following. Then at the hospital, we are led to believe that the emergency room is prepared for Lars and Biance to arrive, and have arranged for his psychatrist (played by Patricia Clarkson) to be there to receive the patient(s).

Here's my problem: even if you believe that the town is close knit and even if you believe that Lars's doctor had buy-in from the hospital—agreeing to treat Bianca's emergency as real, so as to further his therapy—can you really swallow the idea that a 9-1-1 operator would send an ambulance for a dummy in a wig? I can't. I mean, I had to ask myself, whose insurance is Bianca supposed to be covered by? Did the generous townspeople collect donations to cover the cost of her hospital room? Or were we to believe that some nice hospital administrator waived all the fees?

Maybe these questions seem picky, but it bothers me that Oliver and director Craig Gillespie asked me to swallow the ambulance and hospital bit. Part of the film's innate appeal is that it skillfully persuades the viewer to drop the natural mental objections to the plot. In truth, the film could have used a few scenes where reality bumped up against Lars's delusion. No one ever menaces him or Bianca, and she never springs a leak. But I was cool with the kinder, gentler world the filmmakers created for Lars. I was seduced by it, really. But there's a limit to how forgiving even the most forgiving Wisconsin townsfolk will be. Bianca's magical ambulance ride struck me as too unbelievable even for an unbelievable story. And I couldn't help feeling that in stretching the story too far, the filmmakers betrayed the audience a little bit. I suspended disbelief already. Don't test me people!

Have you seen the film? What do you think of it?

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