Lars, girls, and reality

I saw this movie about a week ago, and it made an impression. Yet one wonders whether it is worthwhile, appropriate, or necessary to write about it. Would it be a tragic loss to not chronicle a remarkable thing such as this movie or my reaction to it? It isn't new, up for awards, or part of the zeitgeist. I should see it a second time, because sometimes, like with "Broken English," I am so affected by seeing a movie once that I think it's better than it really is. But "Lars and the Real Girl" is something special, I swear.

"Lars" is a bit like the inverted reality of "Truman's World" but smaller, quieter, and both inverted and turned inside-out. No, it's not, it's the complete opposite of "Truman's World," but it works on some of the same planes. It tells the story of a man/boy whose circumscribed world is about to burst open in unpredictable ways. It lets the audience see inside the psyche of the character and witness his struggle with identity, especially in relation to other people, including whom he can trust, touch, and confide in.

But never mind the comparisons, this is an altogether different (and better) movie. The aesthetic leap for me was not just suspending my own disbelief in order to enter the world of the film but seeing the characters suspend their disbelief, cultural blinders, prejudices, common sense, fear, and logic to treat a fabrication as reality. Beyond pretending, they bought into the game.

Sorry to intellectualize it unnecessarily, but that's what art does, and that's what play does, and that's what friendship does. Every homo ludens wants someone to play with, to enter a magic circle where imagination reigns and something becomes possible. Instead of treating people as objects - pretty or homely, smart or stupid, nice or nasty, good vs. evil - in a world of liking this and not liking that.