I truly hope my extended review of "Daring Chloe" by the phenomenally sublime Christy award winner Laura Jensen Walker is a true slice of paradise for bibliophiles everywhere It should be ready for blogdom tomorrow. In the meantime I'll share my review of the wonderful "Lars and the Real Girl Christianity Today Movies says it is one of the top 10 most redeeming movies of 2007 Here are my Reel Thoughts on this one of a kind story:
‘Lars meets the doll of his dreams
In the crazily beautiful little indie movie “Lars and the Real Girl,” now on DVD, we meet Lars Lindstrom. Lars possesses the shy grin of brilliant young actor Ryan Gosling. He lives in the garage apartment of his childhood home, in a little burg somewhere in the frozen fingertips of the northern Midwest
. His older brother Gus (Paul Schneider) lives in the main house with his pregnant wife Karin (a luminous Emily Mortimer). They try to draw Lars into their social orbit, but he resists. Karin literally tackles him with her 1,000th invite to Sunday dinner.
When a girl comes into his life, Lars opens up like a geranium in a time-lapse photograph. Her name is Bianca. He met her on the internet. She's a missionary, Brazilian of Danish extraction, raised by nuns, and here on sabbatical to "experience the world." She is confined to a wheelchair. She speaks no English. She arrives in a crate. Bianca is no ordinary wheelchair-bound Brazilian missionary. She’s a Real doll, anatomically correct, ordered from a build-your-own-companion-toy website discovered by Lars’ cubicle mate at work.
The romance of Lars and Bianca isn’t at all kinky. He views her with gentle reverence. There hasn’t ever been such a chaste affair between one guy and his doll—he’s not toying with her.
Lars doesn't think it’s proper for them to share his apartment. He asks his brother if the guest room is available. Gus and Karin are justifiably freaked out.
They take Lars and Bianca to therapy. Dagmar (the wonderful Patricia Clarkson) is the local GP, with a providential background in psychology. Dagmar counsels the worried family to play along. "Bianca is in town for a reason. “ She’ll be here until he doesn't need her anymore.
Every resident has a quirk or two, so everybody cheers on the happy couple. The fella who introduced Lars to Bianca has an obsession with action figures. Office cutie Margo (Kelli Garner) is Lars’ potential flesh and blood paramour who still harbors for an affinity her teddy bear. She humors Lars's romance and is the hopeful other woman until this unusual love story deflates.
Lars, for his part, remains somewhat of a mystery. We get the sense that his "delusion" is some sort of self-imposed construct. Gus tells his brother flat-out that Bianca is just a "big plastic thing." Lars simply ignores him. Eventually Lars will write the last chapter of his happily-never-after with the doll of his dreams. The first good sign comes when he informs us that Bianca has rejected his marriage proposal. We never learn whether the affair is genuine mental illness or a cry for help that took on a life of its own. The movie doesn’t diagnose, we know Lars lives in a yawning cavern of loneliness. He abhors being touched; likening the sensation to the burning one feels in one's extremities upon coming in from the cold.
The screenplay for this offbeat love story comes from the brain of Nancy Oliver. In the small town fantasy world she has created lovable denizens who fully embody a spirit of gentleness and acceptance. There are moments of visually surreal comedy, especially watching Bianca become part of everyday life. Whether hiring her for part-time positions at the mall, cutting her hair at the salon, electing her to a seat on the school board – this is really a study in conviction and the Christian love that Lars's Lutheran minister speaks of at the movie's outset.
Oliver's “Lars and the Real Girl” isn’t one bit degrading or lewd – quite a triumph since it chronicles one man's relationship with a sex doll, especially in this era of cinema where crude has become the pervasive norm.
“Lars and the Real Girl” is a very funny heartstring-tugging wonder. This sweetly beautiful fable harkens back to Frank Capra-esque values of neighborly love and common decency, making director Craig Gillespie's film both a "strangely innocent affair, but also a truly affecting one."
By the end you’ll discover genuine affection for blank-faced Bianca. When its time for Bianca’s departure in a wooden box, the grief is as real as the tears you’ll be wiping away. As Lars approaches a healing breakthrough everyone around offers the compassionate response, embracing the narrative he's inventing as if in recognition that love means indulging one another's most necessary illusions.
In the newspaper my rating system is one to four popcorn boxes. On the island I think I'll use virgin tropical drinks with umbrellas :) 
On the 1 to 4 scale, this was incredibly amazing and yummy so it earns 3 and a half cute lil umbrella drinks!!
An island care package arrived today with the intriguing "More Than It Hurts You" by sweet Darin Strauss and A Page Out of Life by the lovely Kathleen Reid...
Later today I'll post again so we'll spend some more time with Laura Jensen Walker's Chloe Adams who isn't creepy or spooky, but she's certainly kooky :)
