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LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (USA)
SHOWING: Sunday, February 17 at 6:00pm
Rated PG-13, 106 minutes
Director: Craig Gillespie, Actors: Ryan Gosling, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider

Making its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival®, Craig Gillespie‘s sweetly off-kilter debut feature film, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, has already received overwhelming critical acclaim, with Ryan Gosling delivering another dazzling perform-ance in the title role. This perfectly composed first film is the perfect marriage of impeccable performance and incredible script, and a potent delicacy for the heart and mind.

Set in a Midwestern small town during a typically snowy winter, Lars Lindstrom (Gosling, THE NOTEBOOK, HALF NELSON) is an awkward young man who lives in the garage beside his deceased father‘s house. With a brother and sister-in-law who would like to see him settled down and raising a family (especially after years of living under the shadow of his taciturn widower father), Lars‘ social life consists primarily of attending church. Lars‘ family is obviously overjoyed then, when he makes the announcement that has found a special friend. Delight turns to panic, however, when the new girlfriend arrives.

Although lovely in her own way, the fact that Bianca is a realistic full-sized doll with an elaborate back story (charmingly recounted by a boisterously in-love Lars) leads Lars‘ family to believe Lars has finally gone off the deep end. At the urging of Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson, DOGVILLE, ALL THE KING‘S MEN), a kind but slightly loopy doctor, his worried family is told to go with the flow and pre-tend that Lars‘s lady friend is real, in the hope of helping him work through his issues. The local community ultimately responds with surprising compassion in welcoming the new couple as Bianca goes bowling, starts a career as a model, and is embraced as a member of the community.

At times both hilarious and heartbreaking, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a gently naughty comic melodrama of love found and lost. The film boldly addresses how a damaged person comes to terms with past traumas and grows into adult responsibilities when faced with death, loneliness and even abuse. Both Gosling‘s exceptional – indeed, revelatory – performance and the impressive direction of Craig Gillespie evoke overwhelming empathy for a man and the past he struggles to leave behind.

Official website: www.larsandtherealgirl-themovie.com

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