Read More @HJ Reviews: Love in the Strangest Places Darrel Manson Previews: Background HJ

Some people interact with others well, even excitedly. Others are more reserved, less comfortable, shy&ellips; whatever you may. Lars (Ryan Gosling) is one of those latter people who recognize their isolation but lack the means to break through his own self-doubt and internal sadness. Faced with the consequences of a life of isolation, the trinity of community, relationships, and even friendship rise as the only means to intervene. And so it is with Lars and the Real Girl.

At the Holy Grace Lutheran Church, the audience receives its marching orders from Reverend Bock: "In all the world, there are books and books and books of laws but in all this world, there is only one law. We never ask, 'Lord, what should I do?' because the Lord has told us what to do. 'Love one another.' That is the one true law. Love is God in action." Thankfully, for Lars, who seems love-less, there are others who rise up to love him.

Take for instance, Mrs. Gruner, whom Lars helps carry flowers to her car because that's the kind of guy he is. She offers acceptance now, and throughout the movie, for Lars, whether he's gay, straight, confident, or insecure. But even more than Mrs. Gruner, Lars' brother, Gus, and his wife, Karin, serve as the means of God's love intervening in Lars' life.

Lacking the means to interact with women, or even his own family, Lars lives solitarily. But Karin loves Lars enough to tackle him, to literally lay her life down to call him to dinner, to gather him into community, and finally, to seek counsel for him when he needs it most. See, Lars finally gets himself a "love doll," an inflatable, self-designed woman he calls Bianca, raised by nuns and now taking a break from being a missionary.

The movie will make you laugh, or cry. It's either poignant or pathetic, and there's not much room in between. Lars' community turns out to be bigger than he thinks, more than Gus and Karin, more than his admirer Margo and those at his job, and certainly more than Bianca. Surprisingly enough, his church community proves in the long run to be more engaged and more welcoming of his differences than many churches I've experienced or read about. Reverend Bock, when faced with welcoming or ostracizing Bianca from Sunday services, simply asks, "What would Jesus do?"

Like many other stories before it, Lars and the Real Girl is really about coming of age, in a delayed, socially-inept sort of way. In that way, Bianca serves as a Christ figure, as the best blow-up doll can, because she has to die for Lars to truly live. With apologies to Pinocchio, Lars isn't "real" until Bianca leaves the picture. Lars comes alive when Bianca dies, but he is created or comes into existence by the intervention, blessing and unconditional love of his community. The movie itself works because of Gosling's talent, but the realistic reactions of the characters who make up Lars' extended "family" provides the movie with its life.

How far would you go to include someone else who seemed left out? That question gets torn up and thrown away by Jesus, whose very life was given up to make outsiders insiders. Those separated from the love of God can find redemption in Jesus' death on the cross, and truly come alive. We're all socially inept, unable to talk with or be with God, but God creates community for us, opening the door through Jesus' sacrifice. And that love itself makes us all real boys and girls.