Lars and the Real Girl could almost be considered a romantic comedy and revolves around Lars (Ryan Gosling) who is quite a shy man and lives in the garage apartment behind his brother Gus’ (Paul Schneider) house. To compound the situation for Lars, Gus’ wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) is always trying to involve Lars, inviting him to meals, however he always shyly refuses. Both Gus and Karin have a bet standing between them on whether Lars will ever accept their dinner offer.

However, one evening he approaches them and says that he’s going to be coming to dinner and is bringing his new girlfriend. She’s a wheelchair bound missionary named Bianca. When Lars arrives, Gus and Karin find out that she’s really a life-size, anatomically correct sex doll that Lars has bought off the internet. Although "shocked", they pretend to be oblivious to the situation and play along.

The next day, Gus and Karin contacts Dr. Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) and under the guise of bringing in Bianca for a checkup, they hope that the doctor will investigate the mental state of Lars. Dr. Dagmar finally comes to the resolution that Lars is using this sex doll to cope with his inability of meeting real women. Although the premise may sound a tad outrageous, it's quite a quirky comedy that has some truly entertaining moments and when the entire town gets involved in the act, Lars and the Real Girl is one of the most original movies of the year.