Twenty years ago Andrew McCarthy starred in a movie called Mannequin. In that movie McCarthy plays an artist who creates a mannequin and then falls in love with it. It doesn't hurt that the plastic statue comes to life as Kim Cattrall. The end result was a forgettable romantic fantasy that was popular enough at the time to spawn a sequel.

Why do I bring this up? Well, it does have an out there premise that bears a little resemblance to the high concept of Lars and the Real Girl. The big difference is that the older film played as a light-hearted fantasy while this new film takes the concept and plays it straight as a mostly believable and sweetly heartfelt story of a young man finding his way.

Earlier this year Ryan Gosling starred in Fracture as a young DA facing off with Anthony Hopkins in a film that seemed to announce him officially to the mainstream audience following his Oscar-nominated turn in indie hit Half Nelson. Rather than continue working into the mainstream he followed that up with this performance as an introverted to the extreme young man who has a unique way of working through his issues. If nothing else, he is an actor who looks for challenging roles rather than the easy dollar. It will be interesting to watch as he develops even further.

Lars (Gosling) lives in a room off the garage behind his family's home. His mother died long ago, his father a bit more recently. Inside the house reside his brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), and his pregnant wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer). Now Lars is a curious fellow, always begging off Karin's invitations to dinner or breakfast with a series of excuses. He can barely stand to be touched by another person, suffers extreme social awkwardness, and spends much of his time sitting alone in his darkened room. Lars is an outsider, someone who cannot function outside of his rigid routine. He goes to work and home, plus church on the weekends.

One day, Lars' co-worker is surfing some early morning porn and shows him a website that sells anatomically correct "love dolls." I suspect that I need not explain what that is? Anyway, the site gives Lars an idea and six weeks later a coffin sized box arrives on his doorstep. It appears that Lars has found the perfect solution to his social interaction issues. He introduces "Bianca" to his brother and sister-in-law, who react as you would expect.