Tonight at the Mockingbird Hour, we’ll be looking at Lars and the Real Girl (2007), a dramatic comedy for which Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) was nominated for a Best Golden Globe.
The distinctively Christian aspect of the movie is its honest look at the human condition and its depiction of the transformative power of love, aka acceptance, aka non-judgment.
Ryan Gosling plays Lars, a deeply wounded, delusional young man who acts out his fear of relationship by purchasing a full-size mannequin with which he form a serious (and Platonic, thankfully) bond. When confronted with the shock of this situation, his family and community (even his church!) eventually decide to accept it in the hopes that Lars will come to terms with his pain.
Although a bit idealistic, I have perhaps never seen a movie which so beautifully encapsulates the scandalous love and acceptance which marked the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed and embodied.
I hope that you can join us this evening!
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5 responses to “Lars and The Kingdom Of God”
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A modern-day “Harvey”?
actually, yes, with the caveat that at no point does the “real girl” actually become real, although she is treated as such. It would seem that the power of imputation has its limits:)
I love this movie.
It’s a great movie for Law oriented Christians who are eager to (as they say) “Speak the truth in love” to sinners.
The brother of Lars in the movie is the biggest proponent of this and his strategy is a signal failure. (Also interesting is the movie’s exploration of what REALLY is motivating people who seemed filled with the wish to Speak The Truth to lawbreakers.) The fact is that every man is broken and his ultimate healing is a mystery known only to and accomplished through the secret working out of Providence — through the mysterious working of the Spirit in a timeline utterly hidden from us and our own rational expectations of the Law.
OK, since you guys are watching LARS.. let me make a plug for a movie I like even better, which is DIRTY FILTHY LOVE.
OK, I promise you, this is not some movie you’d pick up in an adult bookstore. The title sounds like that but it isn’t!
It’s a very funny, sad, and poignant story about a guy who has both OCD and Tourette’s. Very much a sleeper indie film. My guess is also something that the Mockingbird crowd would love.
I like that: “the Mockingbird crowd”…
Luv,
Dobie Gray