Review Of Ruby Sparks

 

Zoe Kazan wrote Ruby Sparks and she plays Ruby in the film itself. Her co-star in the movie is Paul Dano who you might know from the cult indie comedy "Little Miss Sunshine". As a real life couple, the two of them present an on screen chemistry that is so strong it carries the movie from being a decent fantasy-rom-com into being a truly special motion picture that has gone under the radar for reasons I can't pinpoint or understand.

 

The story is one of hope, one of social anxiety leading to ideals that are pretty impossible to ever find, to ever meet. It is in this that we meet the main character in the story of "Ruby Sparks", Calvin. Calvin is a young man with social anxiety who wrote a book and it became an american literarature classic and due to that he had been unable to think of the tale in which to follow it up. He was in councelling since he was a child and lived alone in an apartment that appears to be designed for solitude in order to help him to find whatever his second novel would be. One day Calvin begins to have dreams about a girl and in this he begins to fantasise about her. His councellor, played in a loving and knowing way by Elliot Gould, tells him to write about this girl and see where it takes him.

 

Calvin writes about the girl, how she looks, what she smiles like, how her voice sounds to his ears and that her name is Ruby Sparks. He is rejuvinated by his writing and begins to write more and more, loving his time with the girl he is creating on his typewriter. The typewriter becomes a symbol of Calvins' reluctancy to accept his success and attempt to move forward.

 

To cut bits and pieces from the whole story, Calvin eventually wakes up, goes downstairs and sees the girl of his dreams, literally, cooking eggs in his kitchen with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. He immediately thinks he is going mad and hallucinating until eventually realising that other people can also see, hear and touch Ruby. The girl of his dreams had come to life and was in love with him as much as he was with her.

 

The story takes many turns from here, and this is where I'll leave it to you to see where it goes. I wouldn't want to spoil it. It does, however, involve the ability of Calvin to write more detail about Ruby and immediately effect her with the use of his keyboard and his ideas.

 

The mixture of fantasy, romance, drama and comedy is wonderful and makes for a fresh and interesting take on a romantic tale of finding love and coping with all it has to offer, both good and bad, not forgetting the in-betweeny parts.

 

Paul Dano is great in his role, conflicted, messy and troubled by his own mind and the pressure he places on his own shoulders regardless of his loving family. Zoe Kazan adds a childlike innocence and a sparky honesty to the character of Ruby.

 

The supporting cast of Annette Bening and Antonio Bandaras as Calvin's Mom and Step-Dad, Elliot Gould as Calvins therapist and Chris Messina as his brother are top notch and add a variety of interesting dynamics to the story as it goes on.

 

I loved this movie, it was truly entertaining and heartwarming whilst hovering over sinister and dark at times in a way that all great tales of love should do. There is darkness in life and in love and to leave it out is to ignore human emotion at it's truist. This doesn't ignore, it explores and it makes for a wonderful independant dark comedy with fantastical elements seeping through it's edges.

 

Lovingly crafted and beautifully acted, this was one of my favourite films of last year and since it's DVD and BluRay release I've seen it plenty more times and enjoyed it more and more with each viewing.

 

There have been people in other reviews I've read saying that it could have been much more sinister and thus more interesting but I disagree, taking too many dark steps in a film like this would be completely bizarre and wouldn't really make sense.

 

9/10