Ruby Sparks (2012)

Ruby Sparks is a profoundly sad tale of self-loathing masquerading as a cutesy romantic comedy. The purple-stockings and free spirit of the eponymous female lead and the intensely nervy, intensely unsociable demeanour of the intensely talented writer who loves her may suggest this would be akin to McSweeney’s: The Movie. Mercifully, it never succumbs to the pitfalls one would expect it to. Though author Calvin (Paul Dano) magicks up his dream girl on a typewriter, the picture never delves into the depravity of swill like Weird Science. Nor does it defy reality – well, beyond the miraculous central concept – and treat the creation like some perpetually perfect, unchanging, inhuman entity. Ruby Sparks is about a lonely boy who writes a love story to himself; who makes from his rib an eternal companion, only to discover that Eve’s just not that into Adam.

Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris took six years to select a second project, and they could have done a lot worse than taken a chance on star Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of Elia), for whom this marks her first produced feature screenplay. The manic pixie dream girl she’s created for herself is much more than any catchy nomenclature could ever adequately define. She comes to the almost-agoraphobic Calvin in a dream, and becomes the subject of a simple writing assignment set by his therapist (Elliot Gould). Suddenly, the fear of following up his hit, decade-old debut novel dissipates, and he’s got a whole book dedicated to this ideal specimen: a red-haired, bike-riding, bad boy-loving, sundress-wearing flibbertigibbet by the name of Ruby.

The next morning, on account of the same unexplained supernatural forces that doomed Bill Murray to relive Groundhog Day over and over again, Calvin finds Ruby made flesh in his kitchen. Though he immediately assumes a mental break, she follows him out into the world where he discovers that everyone else can see her too. For whatever reason, she’s come to life with no knowledge of her literary birth. He finally has the girlfriend he’s always dreamed of; one who will adore him forever and won’t leave him like the former lover who broke his heart.

Everything about the set-up to Ruby Sparks sounds wildly misogynistic - not unlike Weird Science - and perhaps if a man had written it, it would’ve ended in a misogynistic manner too. But Kazan is not content with writing or playing a flawless, unquestioning companion. As Calvin’s brother Harry (Chris Messina) observes after reading the first draft of the book: she isn’t a person, she’s a girl. When freed from the confines of his imagination, Ruby indeed evolves from a ‘girl’ to a fully-fledged, three-dimensional person, who tires of being locked away in Calvin’s Ibsenesque Doll’s House, gets grumpy, frustrated, yearns for friends, wants to earn her own money, be her own person, and live her own life. Dare Calvin write a few more pages, add to her attributes, and lock her into doing and saying whatever he pleases for the rest of their lives? This question is answered in the picture’s sad final act, in which the seemingly sweet boy turns cruel.

Dano and Kazan – a real-life couple – have spellbinding chemistry, yet are unafraid to examine and explore the ugly side of couplehood too. Supporting performers like Gould, Messina, and particularly Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas (as Calvin’s hippy-dippy folks) are fun on the fringes, but it’s up to the two young leads to carry the film, and they do a fine job of it. Dayton and Faris might have indulged their young screenwriter too much, as the picture is longer than it needs to be. Still, they capture the sweet spot between endearing romance and melancholy in their tone.

Ruby Sparks is a slightly more despairing experience than I had anticipated. However, like (500) Days of Summer, it too understands that in the search for love, there’s always a little pain before the pleasure comes. Watching Ruby Sparks, however, is entirely a pleasure.

4/5

Check out Simon’s other reviews here.

Regularly embodied by Zooey Deschanel, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (or MPDG) is the latest incarnation of the classic Pygmalion trope that films have been playing off for years: a wide-eyed, unpredictable, charmingly crazy girl gusts into a man's life like a transformative whirlwind. Ruby Sparks cleverly deconstructs that conceit and, whilst not entirely perfect, is entertaining, funny, and much more interesting than your average American comedy.

Calvin Fields (Paul Dano) is a best-selling but reclusive author suffering writer's block and struggling to follow up on his debut masterpiece written almost a decade ago. After an inspirational dream, Calvin begins madly writing; developing a character named Ruby Sparks who he begins to literally fall in love with. In a moment of unexplained magical realism he awakes one day to find a woman (Zoe Kazan) in his apartment who claims her name is Ruby and that they are in a relationship.

Things become immensely fascinating when Calvin discovers that whatever he writes in his manuscript is immediately manifested in reality by Ruby. He can make her unknowingly speak French or even come back to him when she has inclinations of breaking up. It's a great concept and writer Kazan (grand-daughter of the legendary Elia Kazan, no less) bravely takes us to some unexpectedly dark places. Adding a greater layer of interest is watching Kazan herself take the role of Ruby, Calvin's fictional creation. In a story that could very easily have become a misogynistic male-fantasy, Kazan successfully turns her narrative more into an examination of where power needs to lie in a relationship in order for it to be functional.

Despite a lovely supporting cast including Steve Coogan, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas and Elliot Gould, the movie suffers when it detours into family visits or industry parties. These tangents are always amusing (Banderas in particular is great fun) but never really add much to the story. Ruby Sparks is at its strongest when it concentrates on the evolving insular relationship between Dano and Kazan.

Shot wonderfully by Matthew Libateque and directed competently by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (their first in six years after a successful debut with Little Miss Sunshine), Ruby Sparks is an honest, entertaining, and insightful picture that, despite a very 'filmy' happy ending, offers up an amusingly frank deconstruction of the 'dream girl' idea that pervades much modern fiction.

4/5