Back to trending
Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl

Drama · Romance · 2007

Extremely shy Lars finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother and sister-in-law worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor, his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

Movie details

Lars and the Real Girl

“The search for true love begins outside the box.”

2007 Drama · Romance 1h 47m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.3 / 10

171.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

81 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

70 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Extremely shy Lars finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother and sister-in-law worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor, his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Lars and the Real Girl?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Drama · 2011

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Snow Cake

Snow Cake

Romance · 2006

A drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Magnificent Ambersons

Drama · 1942

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Remember Me

Remember Me

Drama · 2010

Still reeling from a heartbreaking family event and his parents' subsequent divorce, Tyler Hawkins discovers a fresh lease on life when he meets Ally Craig, a gregarious beauty who witnessed her mother's death. But as the couple draws closer, the fallout from their separate tragedies jeopardizes their love.

Ice Castles

Ice Castles

Drama · 1978

Alexis is on top of the world until a tragic accident dashes her hopes and dreams of becoming a world-class figure skater. Only with the help of those who love her can she prove to the world — and herself — that she still has the potential to realize her dreams.

Love Everlasting

Love Everlasting

Romance · 2016

Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.

Collateral Beauty

Collateral Beauty

Drama · 2016

Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

Drama · 2014

Told from the woman's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.

Nobody Has to Know

Nobody Has to Know

Drama · 2022

After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.

The Lost Husband

The Lost Husband

Drama · 2020

Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Craig Gillespie

Written by

Nancy Oliver

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling

Lars Lindstrom

Emily Mortimer

Emily Mortimer

Karin

Paul Schneider

Paul Schneider

Gus

R.D. Reid

R.D. Reid

Reverand Bock

Kelli Garner

Kelli Garner

Margo

Nancy Beatty

Nancy Beatty

Mrs. Gruner

Doug Lennox

Doug Lennox

Mr. Hofstedter

Court is in session

Put Lars and the Real Girl on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.