The last two years have been good to Ryan Gosling. The actor -  who ten years ago was wallowing as the teenage lead of TV series Young Hercules - is now the actor of the moment, having scored a huge Indie hit with the tremendous Half Nelson. An interesting turn opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins in Fracture followed, but he’s back to his independent roots with Craig Gillespie’s Lars & The Real Girl.

Living in a small mountain town, in his brother’s garage, Lars (Gosling) ekes out a solitary existence of work and church, with as little human contact as he can manage in between. His sweet nature endears him to the inhabitants of the town, who are all desperate to see him happy.

One day Lars announces he is bringing a lady friend to his brother’s house for dinner. Initial delight turns to terror when they discover this friend is a life size doll, ordered from the Internet. Rather than anything sexual, Lars behaves as though the doll is real - and his girlfriend. A doctor advises both his brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) to play along, and soon the whole town joins in, in order to help Lars be happy (and hopefully snap out of it!).

Six Feet Under scribe Nancy Oliver’s script is as darkly hilarious as the TV series, only with real tenderness at its heart. It’s clear quite early on that Lars has this delusion because it offers no risk of rejection, and so what seems a fairly outrageous plot at first becomes very plausible. It’s superbly written and you really get a sense that these people care for the central character. The story meanders a little towards the end, but it’s nonetheless an original idea.

This originality is enhanced by some wonderful performances, firstly from Brit actor Mortimer as the motherly Karin, Lars’ sister-in-law. Almost forcing Lars to make a connection with the world, this young wife embodies a mother figure, pushing her reluctant husband into taking the doctor’s advice. Her desperation to see him happy spills out in a great scene at the film’s end. Patricia Clarkson (as the doctor) and Schneider offer some tremendous support also. The standout however, somewhat inevitably, is Gosling. Simply being ‘a bit quiet’ wouldn’t have cut it for such a character. He brings fragility to Lars, making him someone that, to some extent, you care for along with the cast.

As mentioned, it does run out of pace about three-quarters of the way through, and isn’t as jaw-dropping as Half Nelson, but still a genuinely moving Indie flick that deserves a bigger audience than it may get with such an odd subject.