Lars and the Real Girl comes out at selected cinemas in the UK on Friday and I would heartily recommend it.

As is usually the case with these things, the trailer (below) plays up the comedy of it too much. That’s not to say it’s not amusing, bordering on full-on funny at times, but that’s not the point of it: it’s not Weekend at Bernie’s with a sex doll. It’s actually a very sweet story about a somewhat socially broken guy and the way his small town community pulls together to support him during a mental crisis.

It’s very low key but very well done. All the actors are thoroughly convincing and the washed out look of the film is perfect for the subject matter.

As I Twittered but couldn’t be bothered blogging at the time, I wish this had got the Best Original Screenplay Oscar instead of Juno: it could easily have been played for cheap laughs or fallen into cheesy over-sentimentality but it was pitched just right. Still, at least it lost to another actually original film and not another tired biopic or the like.