Lars and the Ontological World?

Now that the semester is over, I have been catching up on movies I have missed out on for the last year! Just watched Lars and the Real Girl tonight. I had my doubts about any philosophical content during the first quarter of the movie...but I should have known better than to doubt its existence!

So, here it is: Lars and the Real Girl is a story that says everyone has a different perception of reality. What they perceive is just as real to them as what you perceive. You cannot down play their impression of reality or say it is any less valid than yours. As the movie says, "Love is God," so you must treat people with tolerance and respect. Obviously, what they perceive is not necessarily grounded in ultimate reality, but who's to say your perceptions are? The best thing a community can do is learn to embrace one another's differences and appreciate them. Even if that means "acknowledging" a life-size doll is a real girl by talking to her, taking her to the hospital, having a community-wide funeral, etc.

Taking it a step farther, I think the movie is also an attack on religion. Religion is reduced to whatever you want to believe is real, in the same way Lars reality was created by whatever he wanted to believe was true. Lars made Bianca "alive" in the same way people make God "alive." The blatant "Love is God" statement also confirms that the message of the movie is anti-ontology.

The problem? It is impossible for everyone to have their own individual perceptions of reality without having them encroach on others. The community had to "acknowledge," not just pretend, that Lars' reality was valid. They had to act in a way that agreed with what he thought. Thus, part of his impression of reality became their's, or they were at least forced to live in it.