Craig Gillespie (2007)
A socially paralysed and emotionally besieged young man buys a life-size sex doll online, presents her to his family and acquaintances as his girlfriend, and conducts a loving (entirely chaste) relationship with her. In theory, it’s attractive to show small- town locals (in Ontario) who are broad- rather than narrow-minded but their unanimous acceptance of the couple is incredible. That might not be a problem if the material were done as darkish comedy but it’s written, directed and played as a realistic human drama. Craig Gillespie directs an ‘original’ screenplay by Nancy Oliver which seems obviously inspired by the plot of Harvey and the characterisation of backwoods communities from even earlier films – but with an admixture of clichés of psychological problem films (like Ordinary People) of a later period. As usual, the problem is presented as solved once (a) the audience has been shown the single-traumatic-event root of the character’s mental condition, (b) there have been a few chats with a friendly medic and (c) the disturbed behaviour has reached a necessary dramatic climax.
Ryan Gosling shows great skill and subtlety in the main role: he gets the right balance between case study and performance and manages to make Lars both benign and crafty. When he first acquires the doll, Lars’s motivation is interestingly unclear – you can believe he’s canny enough to do this to put an end to questions about his love life, as well as provide him with someone to talk to in company or in private. But Gosling’s intelligence is largely wasted. In fact, it serves to expose the phoniness of the piece, which is determinedly innocuous, as if Lars’ behaviour was mildly eccentric rather than delusional, and which moves ever more slowly towards its completely unconvincing ending. Given the pivotal importance in the plot of Lars’s sister-in-law’s pregnancy – his mother died when he was born – it’s a cop-out that the film is over before Karen (Emily Mortimer) has given birth. The supporting cast is sometimes overeager, although Patricia Clarkson gives a carefully controlled performance as the doctor and Paul Schneider does well as Lars’s elder brother. With Kelli Garner as the human being who wants to be Lars’s girlfriend.
25 March 2008
