Lars And The Real Girl Analysis

Throughout the film Lars is seen with a blanket attached to him whether he is holding of wearing it. This is made evident in the opening scene where Lars is observing a family through his window holding the blanket around his neck as if it were a scarf. Through a close up Lars eyes seems focused on the family but progressing his eyes begin to become teary and more aggressively clenching his blanket. This can be interpreted as him wanting to be involved and join the family but an imaginary leash is holding him back. Adding on, the additional symbolism of the window supports his isolation as they look like prison bars, a barrier which is preventing him of reaching the outside world. Following, Lars pushes up against the wall as Karin approaches the door. As she knocks, Lars grasps his blanket tighter and closes his eyes as if the blanket is a mean of protection. The camera focuses to the front wall of the house where the lighting is darker from lars position and is gradually getting lighter as the wall approaches the door symbolising the isolation through the contrast of lighting. Gillespie can only make the viewer feel sympathetic at this point as he forces himself away from the outside world though being given many opportunities to socialise characterising Lars as someone who doesn’t like to interact with other

Upon the arrival of Bianca, we see a false thaw in the weather. As Lars introduce Bianca to Karin (Lars’s sister in law) and Gus(Lars’s brother) the false thaw signifies Lars begging to open himself up to Karin and Gus through the arrival of Bianca. The deceptive thaw, a few patches grass and a glimmer of sunlight, symbolizes Lars emotional retrieval. Through the unconditional love and lack of criticism he desires Bianca provides him, Lars begins to interact with the community having Bianca close by as a protective armor. However it is only false thaw, as Bianca is only plastic and will never be able to provide him with true fulfillment. However the way the community plays along with Bianca gives lars the chance to find his own identity in his own time and in his own way. As an audience we see the immense healing power a community can have if the come together to support an individual.

There comes a time in the second act of Dear Evan Hansen when the sound of the audience's sniffles seem to overpower the sound radiating off stage. The Broadway Musical, Dear Evan Hansen, follows the anxiety driven title character as his lie about a close friendship with a classmate who killed himself spirals out of control. Under the advice of his doctor, he often writes letters to himself, hence, the title of the musical. What had initiated as an innocent misunderstanding soon becomes darker once he is pushed closer with the dead boy's parents and sister (whom he falls in love with). As a member of the show's audience last week, I can most definitely say that this show has changed my life; it has left of positive influence on the way I view the world, especially as a young adult.

Based on Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, the 2004 movie, Mean Girls, was directed by Mark Waters and the screenplay was written by Tina Fey. Through the use of cinematography and music, the viewers were able to experience the real high school society. Mean Girls is about a sixteen-year-old homeschooled girl and her first-time experience at a public high school. Through his movie, Walters portrays the damaging effects of female social cliques on every student in high school.

“Cold, shiny, hard, plastic.”, one of the most popular quotes from the movie, Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and screenplay by Tina Fey. This film is loosely based on a book called “Queen Bees and Wannabees” by Rosalind Wiseman which is a self-help book that describes all of the cliques in high school and how they can have a huge effect on girls. But the movie itself is about the sociopolitical climate of the average American “high school”. The movie was made in 2004 and set in Evanston, Illinois, but the film was shot in Toronto, Canada. The film stars Lindsey Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and many more comedic actors and actresses. I chose to do an analysis on the movie, Mean Girls, because I wanted to see if people would agree with my perspective, which is that this movie does correctly show the real life mean girl situations and how girls can overcome the popularity contests.

In the beginning of the movie, Lars is a painfully shy and eccentric individual. He has troubles with relating to people and often avoids contact with others. His disinterest in connecting with others and forming relationships is the fear of being abandonment. His mother’s death at childbirth has triggered his fear and anxiety and is thus heightened by Karin’s pregnancy with Gus. He has also felt abandonment from his father for not filling that void that he longed for emotionally.

Nancy Oliver’s movie Lars and the Real girl depicts a story that shows of a life that is lost and confused. Lars, a 27 year old man, does not have decent social interaction with others. He struggles with family and social encounters. He has a brother named Gus who is married to Karen. They are soon expecting a child on the way. Gus and his wife live in the house of Gus’s deceased parents. Lars lives out in the garage on their property. Soon on into the movie Lars gets a girlfriend that he supposedly meets online and tells his brother about it. Gus and his wife soon realize what online meant when they met his girlfriend Bianca. Bianca is actually a life-size doll. Lars treats her as normal and even tells Gus and Karen about her life as a child.

The movie, Girl, Interrupted, displays Susanna Kaysen’s eighteen-month stay at a mental institute in the 1960s. This film was an adaptation of a book based on a true story of the main character and author Susanna Kaysen. Susanna was checked into Claymore, a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, after chasing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka. At first, Susanna denies this blatant attempt at suicide and constantly struggles with uncertainty of her thoughts and emotions. Although Girl, Interrupted exhibits several mental disorders one of the most prevalent disorder of this film is Susanna’s Borderline Personality Disorder. This film depicts majority of the signs and symptoms of a person with Borderline Personality. As stated in the textbook, “the lives of persons with borderline personality are marked by instability. Their relationships are unstable, their behavior is unstable, their emotions are unstable, and even their images of themselves are unstable” (Larsen and Buss 593). Susanna’s romantic relationships are extremely unstable and she frequently engages in casual sex. She jumps from one guy to another in a matter of few weeks. One scene that establishes this the most is when her boyfriend at the time comes to visit her at Claymore and expresses his true feelings for her and she instantly withdraws. He asked her to go to Canada with him and she turns him down immediately. She also kisses Lisa who she befriends at the mental institute, displaying a switch of

Lars’ mental state is in isolation. He isolates himself from his brother and his sister-in-law. They would try to get him to eat breakfast with them, but he would just simply refuse. At work there is this girl, Margo, who try’s to talk to Lars but he would just avoid her. All of the sudden, Lars opens up to Gus and Karen and tells them that he has a girlfriend and that he will bring her by for them to meet her.

The character of Lars seems to be a fantastical person who couldn’t really exist in real life. Truth is, there are many people like him who struggle to have relationships with others due to mental illness. Lars is able to find a way to channel his insecurities of personal relationships onto Bianca, whom is a realistic looking sex doll. Ironically, Lars never has sex with Bianca, he treats her as a real human being and forces his community to accept Bianca in ways he never imagined. This acceptance from the community turns out to effect how Lars views Bianca over time, and they unknowingly help Lars grow to have feelings for a real girl named Margot.

Girl, Interrupted (1999) directed by James Mangold is largely based on a semi- autobiographical book by the same title. The movie chronicles eighteen year old Susanna Kaysen’s experiences surrounding her stay at a mental institution. It is 1967, a time of social change and unrest. Susanna makes a half-heart attempt at suicide, ingesting a bottle of aspirin and chasing the pills with a bottle of vodka. She is taken to the emergency room, her stomach is pumped and she survives. Afterwards she meets with a psychologist who explores her more recent feelings and experiences. The psychologist concludes, with her parents assent, that she would benefit from a stay at Claymore, a private mental institution. The next year and nine months forever

Lars Lindstrom is a 27 year old Caucasian male. He has short brown hair, a brown mustache and brown eyes. Lars is a Christian, and is often see at his local church or reading the bible. Although he owns half of his parent’s house, he lives in the garage, which he has made into a studio apartment. His education level is not mentioned, although he has a job that supports him, so he must be educated to some extent. At the beginning of the film Lars is single, though throughout the movie he enters into two different relationships (Kimmel & Gillespie 2007).

In the movie Girl, Interrupted the plot surrounds a period in the life of Susanna Kaysen played by Winona Ryder who was institutionalized at the Claymore mental hospital in the 1960s. In the movie, the main character Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and undergoes treatment to which at the end of the movie she is released. It is at this hospital that Susanna encounters many other patients of which she shares many experiences with. One of these patients was the longtime resident and popular amongst all the other patients Lisa Rowe played by Angelina Jolie whom Susanna became close with and would mid-movie escape the hospital with to only return on her own and find that Lisa would be back a few days later. Lisa, while being the protagonist of the movie, was very charismatic in her own way and based on her behavior and revelation in the movie is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, particularly a sociopath in the movie.

The best memory one could have even of one's own life is definitely his or her childhood. But when the childhood goes wrong, our whole life is topsy-turvy. The trauma experienced during childhood pricks us day by day creating obsession and weakness thereby forming a barrier in our overall personality development. Childhood trauma is more powerful that it can leave an everlasting impression on our behaviour and personality. This paper makes a case study of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, a victim of childhood trauma and attempts to observe the change from the normal behavioural pattern as an impact of the trauma experienced during her childhood.

As a result from having Bianca and the support from his family and friends, Lars is able to fully grow into a mature adult man. The gap between illusion and reality has been bridged, as Lars realizes his true wants and needs after he creates and ultimately destroys Bianca. Lars is now able to have intimate moments with people and be able to touch them without feeling pain. This is most evident in the bowling scene with Margo. Margo invites him to go bowling with her, and Lars comments that Bianca is unable to come because of a meeting. Usually, Lars would reject any social gathering, especially without the accompaniment of Bianca, though this time he accepts. Lars becomes a participant rather than just an observer. He realizes that he enjoyed his time with Margo, however he tells her that he could never cheat on Bianca. Lars is still holding on to Bianca’s existence, but he feels that he may be ready to let go and have a relationship with someone real. This scene is also where Lars allows himself to shed one of his layers and shake Margo’s hand — a huge leap in his development. There is, however, a false thaw when it begins to snow again, symbolizing that Lars is still not fully out of his shell, as long as Bianca exists. This shows the main conflict between illusion and reality that Lars must be able to reconcile. In order to have a relationship with someone real, he must let go of Bianca. The reading in the church in the next scene is significant in Lars’s development. The reading says, “When I was a child, I spoke as a