How far would you go to not feel lonely anymore? More often than not loneliness is a personal issue, which director Craig Gillespie perfectly portrays in Lars And The Real Girl. Former Six Feet Under writer Nancy Oliver tells the story of close-closeted Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling), who is extremely reluctant to get close to anyone, not even his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) or sister-in-law Karin (Emily Mortimer) who live only feet away.

Lars goes through the motions of normal life (going to work, going to church), but as much as he tries to act normal everyone can really see that Lars is lonely. No one thinks much of it, until Lars buys a life-sized female doll (whose name is Bianca) and treats it as a real-life woman. The film could have easily turned into a slapstick comedy given the material, but luckily never does. Of course, there’s comedy (how could there not be), but that’s not what the film is about.

It’s hard not to find humor in Lars and Bianca’s relationship, and amazingly every actor finds those perfect expressions of trying to remain both calm and sympathetic despite being in very difficult moments of disbelief and shock. The dining room scene where Lars first introduces Gus and Karin to Bianca is particularly cringe-inducing, but without having the dialogue be overtly comical or having Gus and Karin’ reactions be remotely condescending or distressed over the sudden realization that might be something wrong with Lars.

There’s an emphasis on Lars being delusional, not sick or hallucinating. This can go a long way toward dispelling many misconceived notions about the term mental illness. Not surprisingly, most of the town has the initial reaction that Lars is crazy, but come to the truth that Lars is a good guy and are willing to do whatever they can for him. In a way, the movie is a tribute to the cohesiveness and solidarity of small towns. In a larger city, laughter and snickering would follow Lars wherever he and Bianca were publicly together, but eventually (in small town fashion) everyone goes beyond simply accepting Bianca as not being just a love doll, and instead (to Lars’ great surprise) embrace Bianca as another member of the town.