Oprah Moment #1

After recently expressing my reluctance to respond to Oprah's picks, I am going to recommend a movie now out on DVD. There, I said it.

The film is Lars and the Real Girl starring the excellent Canadian actor, Ryan Gosling. Actually, the acting is strong in every character. It is about a socially inept and emotionally stunted guy, named Lars, who manages to go to work and to church but lives in seclusion in a garage the rest of the time. To his family's dismay, Lars orders an anatomically correct, life-size sex doll as a companion. No, no, it's not that kind of movie. Lars enters into a delusional relationship with "Bianca" that has nothing to do with sex and he even enlists help to dress her sensibly for winter weather.

The delight of this movie is that the odd couple is accepted by the small town in which they live. Thanks to a compassionate doctor and an understanding pastor Lars's emotional trauma is eventually understood for what it is by virtually everyone and this acceptance is the beginning of his healing. There is a church board meeting where members wrestle with whether to allow Lars to bring Bianca to church and finally decide it's okay.

Of course this almost total acceptance is unrealistic, yet it is a lovely fable, or even a parable. It's a relief to see church folk portrayed as caring rather than judgemental. My experience is that the vast majority of "churchies" are compassionate and generous.

I wonder why we are so often portrayed as mean-spirited and unloving? Maybe I don't want an answer!