Go rent Lars and the Real Girl (PG-13).
How I pick movies:
I have blogged before about how I tend to pick movies: How to Sort Through Which Movies are Worth Seeing. In short, we often look at Christianity Today Movies and see what they have given 3 1/2 or 4 stars–see their page Our Top Rated Movies. Amy and I don't really watch R rated movies because they make us cringe too much–the sex and the violence–is that because we are around a 3 year old and 1 year old and so our normal environment is so gentle? The Christianity Today Movies site is not foolproof–basically they have assembled a bunch of reviewers who are thoughtful Christians but their tastes vary. So my final criteria is to look at the Rotten Tomatoes site which serves as a collecting place for reviews. The beauty of Rotten Tomatoes is that they take something very subjective–movies–and provide survey results and excerpts of reviews so that you can easily get a snapshot of whether reviewers liked the movie or not. Now, this may sound like a lot of research but it can help you find movies that were reviewed by a Christian highly and were liked by a lot of reviewers.
Recommendation:
So, to my point, I would recommend Lars and the Real Girl rated
- PG-13
- It was released on video and DVD in April 2008.
- Peter T. Chattaway at Christianity Today Movies gave it 3 1/2 stars when he reviewed it in October 2007.
- Christianity Today Movies also named it the second most redeeming movie of 2007 in their list of the The 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2007.
- 81% of reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes thought it was good.
Here is the Rotten Tomatoes information as an example of how their system works:
Reviews Counted: 125
Fresh: 101
Rotten:24
Average Rating: 7.1/10
My synopsis of Lars and the Real Girl:
In the movie,
a small town (think "church") helps bring healing to a man with emotional problems because they love him well. It is quite beautiful. Lonely Lars
pretends a life-sized doll is his girlfriend. The town
goes along with his pretending – showing that they really love him; but they also push him beyond his pretending. It is a great picture
of what the church should be.
The only disclaimer is that the doll he ordered is a life-size sex doll
but this is really quite a minor part of the story. It is thus rated PG-13
"for some sex-related content."
Additional recommendations:
Amy and I also liked Dan in Real Life.
and Once
- Rated R for language.
- Not reviewed by Christianity Today Movies
- 97% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
Note again my post:
How to Sort Through Which Movies are Worth Seeing (August 7, 2007).