by Ian Pugh Beyond its pale stab at indie street cred and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (which are almost one and the same these days), Lars and the Real Girl shares with Juno an
invitation to partake in a never - ending stream of laughs over its
premise until it basically flips a switch and instructs you to get emotional over it — the supposed target of discussion here being nothing less than that ever - popular subject of paternalistic revulsion, mental illness.