Juno was my favorite movie last year, so I’d urge you not to skip it forever. It was luminous and off beat and yes, sometimes a little predictable, but the performances are worth the journey.

LOL, Marina, I saw previews (on the Lars DVD) and the Saturday Night Live skit. I have a pre-teen at home, and the Juno snark could be lifted out of our dinner conversations.

Julie, I don’t know that Lars had some sort of chemical imbalance because they never address it except in the bit about him not liking to be touched. It seems like I read somewhere that mildly autistic people have problems with sensory overload, including the painful touching. So that’s what I locked onto. I really enjoyed Clarkson here, and yes, I was buying that Bianca was getting more and more real, which was one of the cleverer things about the movie.

I really liked Patricia Clarkson’s performance and part.

Hmm, I didn’t get the impression that Lars had Asperger’s or really anything biological or chemical (at least not once we got more deeply into it). Just assumed he was in so much pain from the “inciting event” he couldn’t handle real life until he worked through it.

Didn’t you almost find yourself believing Bianca was real, too? :)

I preferred Lars and the Real Girl. It was a bit our of left field and I found it odd that given the subject matter, a guy pretending that a sex doll is his girlfriend and everyone going along with it, the film manages doesn’t push any buttons. Instead, it comes across as mild fare. Very entertaining yet mild.