In theaters

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, directed by Craig Gillespie, written by Nancy Oliver, 106 minutes, rated PG-13.

Craig Gillespie’s “Lars and the Real Girl” is the story of 27-year-old Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling), a shy, God-fearing man who orders a life-size sex doll through the Internet and eventually accepts her not only as a real person, but also as his new girlfriend, Bianca, a half-Brazilian, half-Danish missionary.

Good for him, you say? Not so fast.

The trouble with Lars is that none of this is a joke. He expects everyone in his life to accept Bianca as a living human being, which not only sounds screwy given Bianca’s rubbery mouth, corked gaze and strawlike wig, but also, as far as this movie is concerned, painfully manufactured and a wee bit creepy.

Given the subject matter, it’s easy to go into the movie armed with resistance – the whole premise is a stretch. After its awkward opening moments, it’s also just as easy to dismiss it, particularly since it initially isn’t clear whether the film is intended to be a comedy or a drama.

But then the director does something unexpected. Working from Nancy Oliver’s script, he starts to unfold the rest of the plot with such grace and seriousness that he nudges you into acceptance of the absurd. It takes time for that to happen – this is a movie that grows on you – but when you come to believe what Lars believes, what ensues can be disarmingly powerful.

How Lars came to this fractured point in his life is a complication best left for the screen to explore, but what can safely be said is that Lars’ older brother, Gus (Paul Schneider), left the family at its lowest point, leaving Lars scarred with abandonment issues.

Now those issues have come to a head in ways that Gus, his wife, Karin (Emily Mortimer), Lars’ co-workers (including the terrific Kelli Garner), a local doctor (Patricia Clarkson, excellent) and the entire town must face. This young man is mentally ill and he needs their help. Are they willing to go along with Lars’ delusion in the hopes that he’ll come through it?

Since that means accepting Bianca as a real person, it’s a tall order, to say the least. But as the local pastor puts it to this rural town of Midwesterners, “What would Jesus do?”

What ensues is touching, not schmaltzy, an intelligent film that proves sometimes it really does take a village to change a life – or at least to make an effort to change it. The neat sleight-of-hand the movie achieves is how the townspeople come to need Bianca almost as much as Lars does. This sex doll with the fiery-cold stare and the opened silicone limbs brings the community together in ways for which she never was intended, but there she is, a miracle worker whose ample chest is pinned with dozens of hopes.

Marked by its excellent performances – the movie would have collapsed without the strength of its cast, all of whom play the material mostly straight – “Lars and the Real Girl” looks at life with a frankness and a patience that’s refreshing.

Gosling is on the short list for an Academy Award nomination for this movie – his performance is that strong. So here’s hoping that the movie opens in the Bangor market soon so audiences can see for themselves whether he deserves that other miracle, the golden one that’s equally cold to the touch.

Grade: B+

On DVD and Blu-ray disc

SAW IV, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, 92 minutes, rated R.

Time to cut the cord.

With the DVD and Blu-ray disc release of “Saw IV,” the most convoluted and preposterous film yet in the burned-out “Saw” franchise, director Darren Lynn Bousman once again puts his viewers’ necks on the chopping block and shows them no mercy.

The bloodletting begins at the start of the movie. Stretched out on a mortuary slab is Jigsaw himself (Tobin Bell), who is about to undergo an autopsy of the most graphic sort – and we’re not just talking about the surgical gutting that ensues, but of how Bousman offers us unparalleled access to Tobin’s genitals, which are on full display here. Lucky us?

Not so much.

This middling film then slumps into a series of flashbacks and flash forwards, the lot of which are so dizzying, you might want to watch the movie with your favorite MENSA member to see if they can make sense of it. That is, of course, assuming they stay awake.

This base, soulless movie offers everything you expect, right down to the lack of quality and the idea that horror is just gore, not well-measured suspense. In it, the series’ expected wasteland of deadly traps abound, but so do twists upon twists, with the film dipping freely into all that came before it to explain why Jigsaw is the way he is.

Donnie Wahlberg, Angus Macfadyen, Costas Mandylor and Lyriq Bent return from previous films, so it’s good to know that they’ve made their mortgage payments.

As for the film’s denouement, the audience at my theatrical screening last October rightfully was having none of it – boos ensued. In the end, though, after all the pig masks, the literal hair-pulling and the endless slaughtering the movie offers, the film’s advertising campaign turns out its greatest threat: “If it’s Halloween, it must be ‘Saw.'” If that’s the case, nobody should fear another writers’ strike.

Grade: D

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at christopher@weekinrewind.com.

New to DVD

Renting a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases. Those capped and in bold print are new to stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

Balls of Fury – D+

Because I Said So – C

Black Book – B+

Blades of Glory – B+

The Bourne Ultimatum – B+

Breach – B+

Bridge to Terabithia – B+

THE CATHERINE COOKSON ANTHOLOGY – B+

CHANCER: SERIES 2 – B

The Condemned – D

Death Proof – B+

Deja Vu – C+

The Departed – A

Disturbia – B

Dragon Wars – D+

Eastern Promises – A-

ER: COMPLETE EIGHTH SEASON – C+

Evan Almighty – C

Evening – C+

Fail Safe – A-

THE GAME PLAN: DVD, BLU-RAY – B

Good Luck Chuck – D

Hairspray – A-

Halloween (2007) – D

Happy Feet – A-

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – C+

The Heartbreak Kid – C+

The Illusionist – B+

Infamous – B+

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry – D

Invincible – B

Inside Man – B+

The Invisible – C-

The Kingdom – D+

Live Free or Die Hard – B-

A Might Heart – A-

Mr. Woodcock – C-

The Nanny Diaries – D+

Ratatouille – A

The Reaping – D

Reign Over Me – C-

Resident Evil: Extinction – C-

Rocky Balboa – B+

ROYAL RUMBLE: COMPLETE ANTHOLOGIES III AND IV – B+

THE ROYLE FAMILY: SECOND SEASON – B+

Rush Hour 3 – D

SAW IV: DVD, BLU-RAY – D

The Simpson’s Movie – B+

Shoot ‘Em Up – B

Shooter – C+

Sicko – A-

Stardust – B

Superbad – B+

Surf’s Up – B+

300 – C-

3:10 to Yuma – A

The Transformers – B+

28 Weeks Later – B

Underdog – C-

WAR: DVD, BLU-RAY – C-

We Are Marshall – D

Zodiac – C