★★★ Lars and the Real Girl

[Gino: 3.0]

Gino says: 'This film about a man (played by Ryan Gosling) who, traumatized by loss in primary relationships and subsequent lack of parenting, achieves some emotional healing through an imagined relationship with a sex doll. As I noted in previous reviews (e.g. for "Snow Cake"), I am a sucker for films revolving around the breakdown in human communication and how it inhibits relationships. So two thirds of the way through this film, I was giving it 4-stars. It has appropriate tone, settings, photography, etc. and fine performances by Gosling and others, including the increasingly-welcome presence of Emily Mortimer. At one point I was even briefly touched by the turns of events.

The problem is that the level of community support and indulgence that this (admittedly nice) man gets in his small community begins to get ridiculous, and the third act drags as a result. In other words this had the makings of a "great film" if it had had more guts to butt up against reality a bit more and untidy things a bit. If however, you avoided watching this, as Twoshoes did, because of your fear of the inevitable rise of our future robot overlords, and thus fear all anthropomorphic objects, fear not -- it is a decent film and not at all disconcerting in that respect.'