I knew what this movie was about going in. I wondered if they could pull it off. They did. Lots of credit goes to Ryan Gosling for an amazing performance of a troubled soul with enormous needs.

But Lars & the Real Girl would not work without Paul Schneider's performance as Lars' skeptical older brother. This is the audience's position. WTF? He sells it. The whole movie works off his love/ bafflement about his brother.

Believe it or not, a clerk at Blockbuster tried to talk me out of renting this movie. She said she and her boyfriend watched it and hated it. Man, I feel sorry for this woeful couple if they cannot see the brilliance of a perfect screenplay brought thrillingly to life.

I assume this movie was set in Minnesota. I live in Baltimore, which is a cool city, but I cannot imagine anyone here pulling off what is pulled off in this small town in Fargovillage. Between this movie and Fargo, I am real curious about what goes on there in the midwest on the Canadian border. Baltimore has John Waters, but we don't seem to have a lock on weirdness.