Lars and the Real Girl

It's a trip to watch a normal movie. What have I watched lately... 8 1/2, Harry Potter, a couple of old Shakespeares, GoT,... heavy on the fantasy, the artsy, and the classical. What I mean by "normal" is a movie that doesn't try to change the world. The irony is, in a way, Lars and the Real Girl changes the world just as much as those wider-distributed epics, because it turns a few hearts toward the humble and the good. Lars makes a big impact in his small town, bigger than the artificial stimulation GoT delivered to millions, bigger than Fellini creeping cinema forward in its academic artsiness. And Lars and the Real Girl relays that impact to the viewers; we're not quite the same person when we leave; we're all a little moved; not in a wide-minded way that'll serve us if the US ever devolves into medieval factions, not in a fine-minded way that'll serve us at the next cocktail party, but in an earthy, full-hearted way that'll serve us as we reap and sow care throughout our lives. Thus Lars touches a more critical organ than the rest.

And I bought in! Despite my rejection of modest and indie cinema lately, despite my impatience with anything that isn't cutting-edge, I got the full Lars experience, like I did in high school. I liked it a lot back then, back when I liked modest indie stuff. I didn't think it would age so well. I deliberately avoid movies like this, because I think movies should distinctly entertain or educate me. And I don't walk back that viewpoint, nor was this movie my selection for the night, nor will I resume my old habit of watching movies like this. But I can say they still hold that value I used to cherish. Lars still holds that value.

I overlooked back then how this probably takes place in Wisconsin, and how the community's reaction to Bianca is a major part of the message. I'd never lived in any other state back then (nice pluperfect). Now I have, and I'm pleased to live in a place that could react like the community in the movie. I wouldn't hate living in that snowy, homely town. Now, I must admit, I'm addicted to the wide-minded and the fine-minded, so I wouldn't elect to live in that town. But I wouldn't hate it either. In high school I was torn between these several perspectives. Now I've accepted I'm deeply, perhaps immutably, fascinated by the wider world and the finer things, but in high school, I was almost on the point of deliberately rejecting them and retreating into a Lars-like oblivion of niceness. In that very high school period I was also corrupting myself beyond repair by avant-garde film, nihilist readings, etc etc. Now I hardly think I could retract back to the simplicity I admired in movies like this. But I'm happy to say it's not foreign to me either; I do live around towns like that, I am surrounded by family, my life is at times wholesome, however unwholesome my soul.