Lars and the Real Girl
(Craig Gillespie):
Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Patricia Clarkson.
Running time: 106 minutes.
This sweet indie comedy is the story of Lars (Ryan Gosling), an odd man who lives with his stable brother Gus (Paul Schneider). Lars sleeps in the garage, Gus in the family house with his wife Karin (Emily Mortimer at her most endearing). Lars is strange: he avoids emotional connection, won’t be touched, and doesn’t know that the redhead at work (Kelli Garner) is his soul mate. (Though we do). Then he announces he has a girlfriend: she is in fact a mail-order blow-up doll, whom Lars is convinced is real and treats with the utmost of respect. His brother thinks he is sick, but the local GP (Patricia Clarkson, lovely) thinks Lars is decompensating for a childhood trauma and needs time and support to work through the delusion. So the whole town is roped in to amusing affect. This is the kind of role Adam Sandler would have murdered. Instead, Ryan Gosling as the off-centre Lars provides an earthy charm and just the right pinch of eccentricity. The film, despite its neatly worked out psychology, is thinner than you expect. But it is sustained by its oddball charm and novelty – a tender story about old-fashioned community values.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
(Mark S Waters):
Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Sarah Bolger
Running time: 97 minutes.
Another addition to the fantasy genre in which nosy children uncork a parallel universe and have to grow up quickly, this one based on the popular Spiderwick books. Freddy Highmore (Autumn Rush) plays not one but two roles here: twins Jared and Simon, though Jared gets to do have all the fun. He’s angry and impetuous (dad has left home and they have moved to a new house in the woods). He finds a dusty old book in a hidden room and opens a magical realm of charms, goblins, tunnels and an evil ogre who will kill the family to get the book. This kind of story is becoming stale, but Spiderwick aquits itself: seamless special effects and just the right amount of scares – a neat allegory about facing your demons.
Meet the Spartans
(Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer):
Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra, Ken Davitian, Kevin Sorbo.
Running time: 83 minutes.
A sharp pencil, a firm notebook and an empty nostril are all one needs to put an end to the horrors of Meet The Spartans. Ostensibly, it’s a send-up of 300, that over-pixilated, comic-book adaptation about King Leonidis and his band of greased-up, skimpy-pants wearing, six-packed warriors who stand firm against the million-strong Persians in the name of Spartan democracy and latent homosexuality. 300 pretty much cooks its own goose, but that doesn’t stop Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer having a go – sans wit or intelligence. It crams an entire shopping trolley of pop-cultural references, blatant product placement and a litany of half-developed jokes and ends in a dance-off. Beyond mindless.
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