Saturday

Possibly the strangest film you'll ever see is Lars and the Real Girl. It stars Ryan Gosling as a lonely man who buys a sex doll and presents her (he calls her Bianca) to his family, friends, work colleagues, and neighbours as his girlfriend. The doctor says he is suffering from a delusion, and suggests that everybody in the town should pretend she is real. They do so. What is incredible from the writer, director and actors is the ability to maintain sincerity in what is obviously a ludicrous (but I'm guessing plausible) scenario. Overall, though, the film is a bit twee, and the ending predictable from halfway through, but there is something so unsettling about it that you won't be able to get it out of your mind. The performance of Gosling, above everyone is outstanding, he makes you believe, and perhaps in someone else's hands this might have been a farce. I have a feeling that if, or when, Gosling becomes a superstar this film will be remembered only as one of his 'early, weird movies', but one that made directors and producers notice him. I have a theory that the film can be read psychologically: we are only what everyone thinks of us. Perhaps this isn't suggested by the script, but it's an interesting angle. Undoubtedly you have to see this film, whether you'll like it or not is a different matter.