Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Lars & The Real Girl - September 19th

When you're an odd young man, it's hard to do the right thing by others - or even yourself. But in small town America you can get away with just about any amount of weirdness.

Lars & The Real Girl is your typical boy meets girl made of rubber, boys falls for girl made of rubber-type movie. Lars (played with colour and sensitivity by Ryan Gosling) is slightly stranger than your garden variety loner. Crippled by his social inadequacies, Lars forms an attachment to a fake plastic woman named Bianca and begins introducing his new flame to his family. (Let's be generous and call Bianca a 'mannequin'.) On the advice of his therapist, they play along, and before long Bianca becomes an indepensible part of the community.

The premise sounds kinda creepy, but this indie hit was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Oscars and a terrific cast make good use of a tight, witty script. Australian-born director Craig Gillespie has crafted an almost believable tale set in chilly, small town America. Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) is always good, and you do feel for Lars' utter helplessness.

"A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around," wrote Helen O'Hara from Empire.

"The film is at once entertaining, heartwarming and thought provoking, hard to label and impossible to simplify - but really easy to enjoy," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

"The impressive thing about this movie is just how unweird it is," said Marc Fennell from Triple J

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below for preview of Lars & the Real Girl