Top Ten Films of 2007

This is my favorite post of the year, the time I get to spout my opinion about what I think has been the best this last year. And 2007 has been a fantastic year for film. Without a doubt this was the best year of the decade so far. It has been incredibly difficult to narrow a list down to a top ten, so I decided to go with a top fifteen. And even with that there are still so many thoroughly enjoyable films that did not make my list.

So without further ado, here are the fiften films that I enjoyed the most in 2007. These films taught me about life, about myself and others, about humanity, about God, and about our relationship to Him. I have written a review of each of these films, so feel free to visit those posts for further investigation into each of these works of art.

15. Zodiac

14. Breach

13. Into the Wild


12. Atonement

11. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

10. The Savages

9. Knocked Up

8. Sunshine

7. The Darjeeling Limited

6. Ratatouille

5. Lars and the Real Girl

4. Gone Baby Gone

3. No Country For Old Men

2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

1. There Will Be Blood

And there it is. I would love to hear others' opinions on the list, and anyone else's list. Let me know what you think/what films impacted you the most this year.

Lars and the Real Girl

"Love is God in action." This is the message one Sunday at the church in a small Canadian town where Lars and the Real Girl is set. And this idea is truly investigated in this quirky comedy with great depth.

Lars (Ryan Gosling, otherwise known as "the man") is a lonely man. He doesn't like it when anyone touches him, in fact it causes him pain. He is 27 years-old and doesn't have a girlfriend. He lives with his brother, Gus, and sister-in-law, Karin. Their father has died and left them the house, but Lars chooses to live in the garage. He has isolated himself from connecting with others, especially women. Everyone in town is trying to hook him up with a girl, but he wants nothing to do with that. Eventually Lars hears about a website that sells plastic women, and orders one. In a way it is a subconscious jesture to get everyone off his back. There are many more layers to his psyche here, which I will get to later. Needless to say (so why am I saying it, ok, maybe it's not needless), his family is shocked and disturbed. Lars introduces them to Bianca, who is half Brazilian and half Danish. She doesn't speak much English. And she is religious, so Lars asks his family if Bianca can sleep in the house so no hanky panky happens. Lars truly believes she is real.

Gus and Karin take Lars and Bianca to the doctor, who is also a shrink, the next day. The doctor informs them that this is a delusion, and that it would be best if they played along with it. Gus is very reluctant and even tries to tell Lars that Bianca is plastic (which he just completely ignores). Eventually they act as if Bianca is real. They talk to her, ask her questions, drive her places, tuck her into bed, etc. Gus and Karin also meet with the church leaders and ask them to play along. After some discussion, they decide to go along with it. What follows is a great example of God's love in action. The church ladies come over often, doing Bianca's hair, taking her to volunteer, and welcoming her into the community as a whole. After a few months everyone in this small town knows that Lars is delusional and they are supposed to play along. Stares still happen (though Lars shrugs them off, thinking they are because Bianca is in a wheelchair), but the community truly comes together to be what Lars needs them to be. You may be wondering why they are supposed to play along. Wouldn't it be better if he just faced reality?

Well, Lars' mother died when he was born. This has caused him a great deal of guilt and pain. This is why he has trouble connecting with others, especially women. He still takes the blanket his mother knit for him everywhere. And now his sister-in-law is pregnant. He thinks she is going to die. This is his way of coping. There is nothing anyone can do to make him snap out of it. It will be over when he needs it to be over, but right now in his life he needs Bianca. So the community, starting with the church, sets aside their pride and embarassment to help a brother in need. Again, "Love is God in action."

At one point Lars brings up the topic of manhood with his brother. Lars thinks it would be wonderful if his culture had rites of passage into manhood, like Bianca's culture does. He asks Gus what it means to be a man (because we can tell that Lars has definitely not made that step). This is, I believe, one of the most important questions in our culture today. Gus says that it is doing the right thing, doing good, even when it hurts. Their father was a man because he could have given them up for adoption but chose to raise them instead, even with a broken heart. This question shows that Lars is beginning to deal with what he needs to deal with.

There is a beautiful scene later in the film where a girl who has had a crush on Lars for a long time breaks up with her boyfriend. Not only that, but a co-worker put a noose around her teddy bear. Lars goes to console her (a big step for him), and while she is talking he performs CPR on the bear. Lars values inanimate objects much more than most people. He sees what the bear means to her. His weakness has become a strength. God turns our weaknesses into strengths for His glory. This is a beautiful contradiction.

So ultimately, why does Lars need Bianca, and when will her purpose be fulfilled? *spoiler alert* It all leads up to the birth of Karin's child. While Karin is about eight months along, Bianca gets terminally ill (Lars' idea, not anyone else's). Eventually she passes away and the community comes together to comfort Lars and mourn the loss of Bianca. The people are hit by this death more than one would think they should be, especially Gus. He has had a transformation throughout the film. He has come to grips with his role in Lars' disfunction and learned a lot about his own manhood. The church ladies come to Lars' side with food and encouraging words. They sit with him, they are Christ's body. The timing of Bianca's death is significant. In Lars' mind, the birth of one means the death of another. So, since Bianca dies before Karin's baby is born, Lars sacrifices his woman for Karin. If one had to die, he took it upon himself (totally subconsciously) to lose his woman, instead of having his brother lose his wife. In all of our weirdness and brokenness, there is beauty.

Lars and the Real Girl is not only beautiful, but is is also hilarious. Just imagine the look on a four year-old's face when he sits on Bianca's lap, or when Karin calls 911 because Bianca is unconscious. This film investigates "mental illness," death, manhood, and loss with great tenderness and authenticity (yes, in a movie about a guy getting a blow-up doll off the internet). This film suprised me with its insight into humanity, and its amazing picture of God's love. It takes courage to make a film with this premise, and to be honest it takes courage for audiences to give it a chance as a good film. But that courage will not be wasted.