Teaching Tolerance with Lars and the Real Girl

Have you seen Lars & the Real Girl? It's a humble independent film, easy to pass over on Netflix or at the video store (you remember it the video store: big room, lots of plastic boxes with pretty pictures on them, etc). Turns out it's a moving story of tolerance, loving someone in spite of his difference, and treating others with dignity. It's a fantastic film to watch with young people.

Lars (played by Ryan Gosling) is an awkward, painfully shy young man living in a grey, nameless Midwestern to