Lars And The Real Girl Analysis

Lars and the Real Girl, written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie, is a heartwarming movie about the acceptance of others. The protagonist, Lars, has to face his differences that he has from other people so he can learn to love himself and let others love him just the same. However, the movie isn’t just about Lars being able to overcome his own problems, but the many other challenges people are faced with when learning to accept one another. The character Lars serves as an ‘other’ that Gus and Laura are guardians to because of their relation. He acts as a lesson for Gus and Laura on acceptance and parenthood for their future child. Lars ' differences causes fear and confusion for Gus and Laura who worry about how others will …show more content…
Gruner, the grandmother who holds a friendship with Lars steps in and proclaims everyone has some weird quirks in some way, and they’ve learned to accept them none the less. She is the one character we see in the story that is accepting of ‘others’ from start to finish. She even offers flowers for Bianca at church. Lars ' comment of "they 're not real so they 'll last forever" carries some irony as he tells this to the doll that shares similar qualities to the fake flowers. As the film progresses, the town becomes much more openly acceptant of Bianca and Lars. Bianca starts volunteer work, socializing, and pursuing more social interaction than Lars. Because of this, Lars isn’t able to see her as much and feels abandoned again, just like when his dad mentally left him and Gus physically left …show more content…
After Dr. Dagmar tells Gus and Laura that Lars is facing a delusion, they say they didn’t notice and feel bad because they didn 't realize he was suffering from being in this state. Their only concern was how they could help, but when the answer was to accept it and “go along” with the choices Lars has made, to embrace the reality he is living in. Both Gus and Laura seemed shocked by this, they were hoping for some route to change Lars, not themselves. In the film Examined Life, the discussion of assisting one another revolves around helping those with physical disabilities, but it is equally important to be there to assist those with mentally related challenges as well. Through their efforts of acceptance, they grow closer to Bianca (specifically Laura) and are rather distraught when Bianca becomes ill and dies. Laura in her upset state asks Dr. Dagmar “How could you let this happen? What is this going to do to him?”. Laura and Gus both find that what Lars really needed was for them just to love and support him unconditionally, and with that he would have enough support to make it regardless of how different he may