Lars and the Real Girl.

"Ryan Gosling's winning streak continues with his radiant performance as Lars Lindstrom in Craig Gillespie's crowd-pleasing dramedy Lars and the Real Girl; an unconventional yet poignant love story," wrote Michael Guillén when he caught Lars in Toronto.

"While the title insinuates that it's a wacky comedy, it's actually a smart, well-crafted, and heart-wrenching film that smoothly discusses the intricacies of loss and depression," writes Monika Bartyzel at Cinematical. "It has many humorous moments, but they serve to relieve tension, not drive the story."

"How painful to watch Ryan Gosling, one of the most elastic actors of his generation, smirk and gawp and grimace his way through Craig Gillespie's smarmy little number about a pudgy Midwestern office drudge so terrified of human contact that the only, um, person he can bond with is a mail-order Brazilian sex doll," counters Ella Taylor in the Voice.

"Lars is the second film from director Craig Gillespie after Mr Woodcock, and his dedication to bittersweet humor and unpretentious storytelling bodes well for his developing oeuvre," notes Eric Kohn at indieWIRE.

"Lars and the Real Girl is the Feel Good movie of the season," declares David Poland. The supporting cast is "sterling" and Gosling may see another Oscar nomination, he adds.

The New York Observer's Andrew Sarris went in cold, was thrown off for a while, then won over.

"This isn't the first time a film has spun an outrageous fetish-based premise into something softer and soulful - in fact, the kinder, gentler tale of unconventional sexuality has become a trend, particularly in indie film." Alison Willmore's got a list at IFC News.

Margy Rochlin profiles screenwriter Nancy Oliver for the New York Times.

Peter Knegt talks with Gillespie for indieWIRE.

Logan Hill talks with Emily Mortimer for New York.

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Gillespie "about his two, highly contrasting first features, the influence of 70s cinema, and why Crocodile Dundee forced him to lose his Australian accent."

Update: "There's no denying that Lars and the Real Girl's defiantly good nature comes as something of a refresher, especially given that the oddball subject matter would normally be exploited for gross-out gags," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "Yet as a result, Lars feels wholly neutered, a wishful-thinking portrait of a reliably lovable outcast, who not only is almost entirely embraced in his antisocial behavior but also never comes up against much conflict."

Updates, 10/11: "Judging from the specificity of his roles, Gosling has got to be one of the most unconventional movie stars in years," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "Should his glitzy stature convince fans to check out the wonderfully bizarre humor of Lars and the Real Girl, then maybe there's a virtuous point to this luminary business after all."

At Slant, Nick Schager finds Lars to be "an SNL sketch reconfigured as quirky-corny Sundance pap."

Updates, 10/12: Are you the audience for this movie? At the AV Club, Scott Tobias seems to have found the litmus test: "At one point in the sickly sweet Lars and the Real Girl, a fresh-faced young woman who still has barrettes in her hair and hearts on her socks weeps in quiet despair because an officemate has killed her teddy bear. The hero, a dysfunctional fantasist played by Ryan Gosling, then proceeds to revive the bear by giving it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the break table. It's that kind of movie."

"It's part comedy, part tragedy and 100 percent pure calculation, designed to wring fat tears and coax big laughs and leave us drying our damp, smiling faces as we savor the touching vision of American magnanimity," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "American self-nostalgia is a dependable racket, and if the filmmakers had pushed into the realm of nervous truth, had given Lars and the town folk sustained shadows, not just cute tics and teary moments, it might have worked."

"This relaxed, character-first sensibility seems to come easy to Gillespie, whereas his attempt at a broader style of comedy in his debut, Mr Woodcock, was an admitted failure," writes R Emmet Sweeney at the Reeler. "With Lars, Gillespie seems to have found his footing, easing into a Hal Ashby-style poker face, although this film wears its heart on its sleeve far more than Being There, an influence Gillespie notes in an interview with Filmmaker Magazine.

"[T]his is a film whose daring and delicate blend of apparent irreconcilables will sweep you off your feet if you're not careful," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times.

In fact, the LA CityBeat's Andy Klein finds it "emotionally richer and more tasteful than one could imagine, given the tawdriness of the concept. It's an impressive triumph over yechhh."

Update, 10/16: Gosling "plays a classic borderline-brain impaired character - one that might well have been portrayed by the likes of Jon Heder, David Arquette or Dumb & Dumber-esque Jim Carrey - without a false or predictable note," writes Dennis Harvey at SF360. "His bad haircut, dweeb wardrobe, and hapless 70s mustache mark Lars as a hilarious geek caricature. But the performance is so deft that you'll find yourself earnestly pulling for Lars' return to the realm of the living - the living love object, that is."

Updates, 10/18: "Lars and the Real Girl has more in common with It's a Wonderful Life - or, more pointedly, Harvey - than any modern grotesque," writes an approving Sam Adams in the Philadelphia City Paper.

"Lars and the Real Girl couches its outrageous concept in classic Amer-indie trappings, including a naturalistic setting that incorporates small-town vistas, snowy cinematography, and a Sundance Channel–ready cast," writes Cheryl Eddy in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. But Gosling's "got a way of elevating even uninspiring material to a more meaningful plane, in the manner of Edward Norton or Sean Penn."

Pam Grady talks with Gosling for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Posted by dwhudson at October 10, 2007 7:09 AM