Lars and the Real Girl (and other stories)

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Last December, I saw Lars and the Real Girl (2007) in the theatre, and then again yesterday on DVD. This film is really charming, with a strong story line and a pitch-perfect cast. Nancy Oliver's screenplay was nominated for an Oscar and several other awards, and Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer also received recognition for their respective roles.

One of Ryan Gosling's earlier movies, Half Nelson (2006), is also one of my current favorites. It's a lot darker than Lars but also an intensely well-crafted piece with its own string of award nominations/wins.

To add to this tangential list, one of Emily Mortimer's earlier movies, Lovely and Amazing (2001), also features really strong performances from her, Catherine Keener, and virtually everyone else in the movie, including a young Jake Gyllenhaal. This movie was written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and was described in one quote on the cover as a "witty moving comedy!" Lovely and Amazing was witty, and it was moving, but in my opinion, it was definitely more of a drama.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) featured Will Ferrell in a straight role. I think the man is a talented comedian, but after watching him on Saturday Night Live and later in a string of occasionally funny comedies, I wasn't sure he could carry this off. I was very pleasantly surprised by his acting in this movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jake's sister) played the baker that Will Ferrell's IRS agent character is auditing, and Emma Thompson played an author with writer's block.

I don't know if I can continue the connect-the-actors element of this post, but there are a few other strong scripts I'd like to add to the list:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, and--in a minor role--Mark Ruffalo),

The Truman Show (1998, also starring Jim Carrey and the lovely Laura Linney, who starred in 2000's You Can Count on Me with Mark Ruffalo),

Love Actually (2003, with a large ensemble cast including Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant),

Sideways (2004, with the underappreciated Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, and Sandra Oh),

and Little Miss Sunshine (2006, with Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin as the grandfather you might not want your kids to hear, the incomparable Steve Carell, and Bryan Cranston in a small but pivotal role).