/* Bianca is in town for a reason */ - Lars and the Real Girl

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Thursday, Sept 13, 2007
Scotiabank 1
2:30pm

Directors in their preamble to the crowd when they introduce their movies to an awaiting crowd always touch upon how the Toronto Film Festival is "a people's festival" - a festival not catering strictly to the industry and critics, but a festival where the people come out to see the films and their reaction is gauged.

Lars and the Real Girl is a people's film - a warm and hilariously funny breakout movie that touches the heart.

Lars is a young introverted man more prone to living alone in his brother's garage than getting out despite the efforts of his brother's wife Karin [played with a endearing sincerity by Emily Mortimer]. However, Lars is by no means agoraphobic, he has a real office job and is a reluctant participant in the banter. His co-worker includes one with a predilection for online activity not condoned in offices. And there is the new girl who seems to have an eye for Lars despite his standoffish behaviour.

Then one day, a large box arrives at Lars's door. And life is never the same again as Lars's brother Gus [ the puzzled Paul Schneider seen in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as Dick Liddil and as Paul in All The Real Girls ] and Karin are introduced to Bianca, a "missionary from Brazil."

The town is in for the ride of its life, and Patricia Clarkson [ what is a TIFF without Patricia Clarkson? ] as the analyst delivers it straight to Gus and Karin: "Lars has a delusion."

"What is he doing with a delusion?"

Under the gentle suasion of Karin, the whole town comes onboard in its support for Lars' situation. While the town adjusts and adapts to the presence of Bianca in many oddball and implausible situations [which garner great laughs from the audience], it is Gus who is the most perturbed by what is going on and the continuous proximity of Bianca, he wonders just how long he has to live and put up with his brother's delusion?

However, due to Bianca, Lars, a lonely soul burdened by some hurt from the past, starts to come out of his shell, gradually living in the real world, having private talks with Bianca, going out on dates, and in public explaining Bianca's background to people. Kelly Garner, the girl with a heart of gold, still has her eye on Lars.

Lars and the Real Girl is a story of compassion and love while reconciling the past, yet laden not with pathos but a real sense of the human soul.