Marc and I were invited to see this last night and I am so happy that it really was a great movie. My biggest worry about this movie was that it would be gimmicky. Remember that awful movie with Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear where they're siamese twins? Horribly gimmicky. Not that I thought Lars would be like that but it could have very easily been a stupid comedy with neverending sex-doll jokes. It was touching and sad without hitting you over the head with it. Yes, the scene where they first introduce "Bianca" is hilarious but then it's done and from that point on she really does become like another character in the story. Patricia Clarkson is so good I'd see her in just about anything but I wouldn't say I was on the Ryan Gosling band wagon. He was, after all, a Mousketeer. A show that I watched. It's hard to get past that. That being said, he was outstanding in this movie. He plays the twitchy, emotionally wounded guy so well it's uncomfortable to watch. I think I actually dated this very guy earlier in my life. But I digress.
****ATTENTION: HERE BE SPOILERS! LOOK AWAY NOW IF YOU MUST!****
Obviously in a movie like this you know the big "breakthrough" is coming so you do spend the movie waiting for it. It didn't come the way I thought it would though which is always refreshing. This wasn't a movie for stupid people where they tell you exactly why someone is a certain way and exactly how it gets fixed and give you the whole family history and tell you who specifically is to blame. They tell you enough for you to just go with it and figure it out which really is fine by me. Clearly he's got issues with death and with his dead mother as he wears not only his baby blanket as a scarf but also what I assume to be his mothers shirt as an undershirt. At Bianca's funeral you can see he's wearing her pink sweater under his suit coat which is really quite sweet after you really get to know this character. Some people thought the funeral took things too far. I'm not convinced. The whole town rallied around this guy and a full funeral was what had to happen for him to have closure. I thought it was just as sad a funeral as if she had been a real person in the movie. On a side note, the girl who plays Lars' eventual girlfriend is just so hopelessly nerdy and adorable you just want to put her in your pocket.
Overall, I really really loved this movie. It was funny, sad and strangely charming. I only hope that if I lose my marbles at some point people will humour me like that.
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