Movie Review: Ruby Sparks

Paul Dano as Calvin and Zoe Kazan as Ruby in "Ruby Sparks"

By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS)

The romantic comedy/fantasy Ruby Sparks takes a playful jab at writers who claim that their characters speak through them.?They?re simply recording the dialogue they hear, say the powerless writers, swearing that they?re akin to psychic mediums, or channels, obeying these willful fictional hijackers who end up running the show.??However, similar to Will Ferrell?s Harold Crick from 2006?s?Stranger Than Fiction, this film?s character leaps out of the novelist?s mind, off the page and into life as a fully-formed corporeal being. But as Henry Higgins, Geppetto, Ms. Eiffel (Stranger Than Fiction) and those dudes from 1985?s?Weird Science?realize, once autonomous, these characters invariably take matters into their own, newly three-dimensional hands.

When Paul Dano?s onetime wunderkind Calvin Weir-Fields is visited by the girl of his dreams, in turn inspiring him to write his next novel about her, he can?t believe his luck when she materializes in his kitchen. But even a dream girl is going to want to step outside the kitchen, heck, even the bedroom from time to time. No matter if the house is rent free, and located in the chic Hollywood Hills ? because that?s women for you.

At first, Zoe Kazan?s Ruby Sparks is indeed perfection. For an intensely isolated writer, unable to conquer the blank page for a decade since his first novel was considered a modern classic in the vein of ?The Catcher in the Rye,? Calvin finds himself suddenly, truly, sparked back to life. Out of sheer love for her, not wanting to break the spell, he locks up his nascent manuscript, seemingly for good. He can write something else ? for now, for once, it?s his heart that will take priority over his work.

The film is chock-a-block with meta levels on and off screen, in front of and behind the camera. Screenwriter/lead actress Zoe Kazan wrote the lead character of Calvin who writes a character played by Kazan. Kazan?s screenplay looks at a romantic couple who are portrayed by another romantic couple (herself and Dano). The film is directed by yet another romantically attached couple, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. They seem to be struggling with a cinematic version of ?second album syndrome? themselves, given that this film represents the follow-up to their initial hit movie, the Oscar-winning 2006 Little Miss Sunshine. As for debut screenwriter Kazan, as the offspring of two award-winning screenwriters (Robin Swicord, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Nicholas Kazan, Reversal of Fortune), she, too, could be challenged by a kind of ?second album syndrome? as she struggles to match her parents? earlier contributions to film. (Or even that of her famous grandfather, Elia Kazan.)

Paul Dano as Calvin Weir-Fields in "Ruby Sparks"

Meta or not, Ruby Sparks offers a good deal to contemplate: idealized love (and its probable, subsequent feet of clay), the struggle to repeat earlier achievements (as one character states, ?It would have been easier if you?d only been mediocre?), the precipitous highs and lows of fame, the fear, the self-editing, the balance of love and work, jealousy, identity, et al.

But the screenwriter does herself a disservice. While Calvin is well-delineated ? the movie allowing us to see him in his environment, reacting with loved ones, colleagues and strangers ? the character of Ruby, fictional beginnings or not, is never quite realized. Who is this girl? Aside from the few tossed-off mumbles that Calvin offers about her back story, we yearn to know more.

And then there?s the obligatory end-of-the-second-act crisis. While usually not that jarring in drama, in romantic comedy the Big Conflict is usually clich?d and predictable. Worse, it can turn so discordant as to belie all the light comedy that preceeds it. In this instance, the crisis scene ? lit in the mode of intense film noir ? is such an abrupt tonal break that we?re flung far from the narrative?s tracks.

However, Ruby Sparks representing Kazan?s first screenplay, it?s an impressive debut. As an actress, she gives Ruby a delicious, quirky sensibility that?s a joy to watch. Dano, too, stepping out of his usual darker rhythms, delivers an ?ber-neurotic artist who?s painfully aware of every shred of his inadequacy, including the fact that he can barely hold his head up when discussing the fact that his male dog Scotty pees like a girl.

The ensemble works as a delightfully comedic unit, from Steve Coogan?s pompous self-ascribed literary genius, to Annette Bening?s hippie mom, to Antonio Banderas? exuberantly free-spirited lover. A special nod to the sadly under-sung Chris Messina as brother Harry, whose testosterone revs just a little higher at the thought of a sexy female who Calvin can control by the mere touch of the keyboard. ?For men everywhere, you?ve got to take advantage of this.?

Ruby Sparks may not be perfect, but it?s a lovely first-time film from a highly promising talent. In more ways than one, Ruby is enchanting ? and you just might enjoy meeting her yourself.

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Rating on a scale of 5 real live girls: 3.5

Release date: August 3, 2012 (ltd. release NY/LA: July 25, 2012)
Written by: Zoe Kazan
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Cast: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, Elliot Gould, Chris Messina, Alia Shawkat, Aasif Mandvi, Toni Trucks, Deborah Ann Woll
Rating: R
Running Time: 104 minutes

Source: http://news.doddleme.com/news-room/movie-review-ruby-sparks/

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