Morefield on "Lars and the Real Girl"

Yesterday, Kenneth Morefield posted comments on Lars and the Real Girl. He gets so much of what I love about this film. And his thoughts make me eager to rent it and see it again…

…the community is the hero of Lars and the Real Girl. I can’t think of the last commercial, American film I saw that presented community as a positive force (at least that wasn’t doing so ironically or satirically). Compare the doctor here to the technician in Juno. Compare the pastor and his community here to the one in There Will Be Blood. Compare the portrayal of businesses (like the merchant who gives Bianca a part time job) to that of Michael Clayton. Compare the film’s take on the possibility for healing, growth, or forgiveness with that of Atonement.

…

Maybe it is the responsibility of art or film to hold a mirror up to the world and show us the cold, hard, truth.

Or maybe, just maybe, on a rare occasion, a film can do something even harder. Maybe, now and again, it can show us the more excellent way, the way that things should be, the way things are beneath the surfaces hardened by cynicism, and scorn, and just plain old weariness.