Am I the only one who doesn't get the hype?

This wasn't a movie about a guy who thinks a doll is real. This was about not judging people. It was about going the distance for love, for faith, for friendship, for community. It was about healing from trauma in unconventional ways, and looking beneath the surface for ways to understand one another and reach out-- for help, and TO help. It was about control and forgiveness and bravery--however those manifest. It was about family, how we can come through some terrible *beep* and be ourselves without forgetting or "prettying" the past. I got much more out of this movie than the awkward laughs in the beginning, so I'm just saying. You're free to take what you got, and leave the rest. I only hope I can have --and be!-- a community like this someday.

it's a fictional movie, not a how-to guide for addressing psychological disorders


Who cares about stairs? The main thing is ice cream.

Some people require an alternate reality to fit in. They struggle adapting to a real world in a traditional sense so need a surreal experience to attempt to relate to it in their own way.

The Beaver was exactly the same as this... in fact I consider it a carbon copy (made 4 years after) where Mel Gibson needs a stuffed beaver to relate to his family, friends, and business.

People do this all the time with certain things. Maybe not to the extreme, but they do it. Some drink alcohol, do drugs, play video games, role play, etc. It's all a way to escape reality in a way and fill a social/personal need to a degree. Everyone has a quirk.. some men hit women, some women get pregnant as quick as possible to feel loved/needed regardless of marriage.

It all just comes down to what is socially acceptable and the town did a good job of accepting his quirk. Funny how alcohol, nicotine, pregnancy, etc. are all socially acceptable but having a relationship with a doll is not. Go figure. Not that I'd be a person to ever get a doll (just not my thing really lol) but I 'get it'.

I was actually a little disappointed by the end *SPOILERS* that he wound up talking to the girl and likely starting a real relationship and didn't end up getting another doll and showing him being a happy person with his nephew and town folks etc. That the doll and that life was what he found to be the fulfilling nature to his happiness. Is that a weird lifestyle? To you and I, but some might think popping out 10 kids, getting married, and worshipping God 24/7 is just as weird.


People get caught up FAR too much in socially accepted behavior and forget to remember it's what makes a person happy end of day (assuming it doesn't harm others) and as long as they can look int he mirror and say, "I'm happy." everyone else can piss off as far as I'm concerned.

It was fine. The premise was too silly to carry the (fairly insipid) message of the film in my opinion, but the actors and the solid production were good enough to keep it watchable, but it was very difficult to connect

I gave it a 5/10. Watchable, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I know what you're saying. I mean, it's like in Lord of the Rings when the ring had this control over the characters,...pfff,..like it had its own energy. Well everyone knows a ring could never have that type of power...it was totally obvious.

There is an absolute endearing sweetness to this movie that is sadly missing in our world often. That "hype" as you call it, I can totally get behind. From the script, direction, the ensemble cast, and most especially Ryan Gosling, this movie is hopeful and touching in the most genuine of ways.

You either get this movie or you don't. I'm not being simplistic here. There's obviously a willing suspension of disbelief that you have to make or you won't appreciate this film. I, for one, loved it even more on a second viewing than on the first because I could focus on how beautifully the writer, the director, and the very talented actors, especially Ryan Gosling, maintained a core of reality in the midst of the absurdity.

But Lars and the Real is not for the cynical at heart.

Maybe it didn't click for you, but it did for me. I heard about it from a lot of people and thought it was over hyped. When I heard about the premise, I thought it was going to be some raunchy thing. But it was touching and kind and got me right in the heart.

I would correct you in that not everyone in the movie does go along--note the two guys in the hospital staring at Lars and Bianca and the nurse has to go and shut the door. Gus can't call Bianca by name, so you know he struggles. We don't see the whole town. We see a circle of people who love Lars, so it is a limited set.

As for how crazy the premise is, I am a pastor and was a chaplain in a nursing home in which there had been one or two people who thought a doll was a real child of theirs. It was touching how many people would go along with them--not just staff and residents, but visitors--to bring comfort to people who were obviously in a different place from the rest of us. We even held a baptism for one doll because it meant so much to her "mother." Would my church body condone that? No. But pastoral kindness does. It did not preclude giving proper care to the person involved, but there are times you just enter their reality and love them there instead of demanding they return to ours.

I showed this film to the people in my nursing home, and they loved it. They knew it wasn't meant to be realistic, but to paint a picture of the best of human kindness and maybe inspire us all a little to be more kind to one another.