User reviews

In a world full of remakes and sequels, it is becoming more and more rare to get something truly original. When something does finally come along it is always hit and miss. Backed by a strong cast including Paul Dano, Steve Coogan, Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, and Elliott Gould, Ruby Sparks attempts to be that latest independent film to bring audiences something new and creative. Can a film with an idea that seems to be based on both fantasy and reality come together to deliver that refreshing film or be just another lost opportunity? Ruby Sparks follows a writer dealing with writer's block as well as a desperate attempt to find love. When the female character he is writing becomes real, his life spirals into various directions trying to determine where his writing will take them. While the story basis for this film comes off a bit unrealistic, the way it is handled makes you buy into the story. For the first half of the film it is pretty funny and creative delivering one of the more entertaining original films in sometime. As it moves forward and towards the inevitable darker tone it seems to slow down a bit making some moments drag a little. Everyone gives a great performance, but Paul Dano really steps up delivering a quirky uncomfortable innocence to the lead that makes it all work. Some of the characters decisions could have been looked at as a bit creepy, but thanks to the way he handled it comes off as a bit more enduring. This is easily one of the more unique romantic comedies to come along in a while stepping away from the normal format and instead taking a left hand turn creating something new.

This is a funny touching film that does get a bit heavy at times and while not a long movie does feel a bit too long at times due to pacing. As a whole, it still manages to work on most levels and accomplishes what it seems to set out to do. If you are ready and willing to take a break from the big budget spectacles of Hollywood, then give this character study a chance you will be pleasantly surprised.

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Greetings again from the darkness. Well it took six years, but co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris finally deliver their follow-up to the smash hit Little Miss Sunshine. With a script from first time screenwriter Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of legendary director Elia Kazan), we get an odd mash-up of would-be Woody Allen, Charlie Kaufman, Stranger Than Fiction, and a Twilight Zone episode.

The story begins almost as a whimsical fantasy. Paul Dano plays Calvin, a blocked writer 10 years after writing the next great American novel, while he was still a teenager. The necessary comparisons to JD Salinger are made, and we witness Calvin as a socially-inept type who was never comfortable with his early success, and now can't find a way to move on with life. Given a writing assignment by his shrink (Elliott Gould), Calvin discovers the true power of the written word.

After a dream of meeting a lovely girl in the park, Calvin's fingers tear through his manual typewriter and develop a story around his literal dream girl. And literal means literal. He runs into her downstairs. His creation has become his creation. Once he realizes they aren't going to lock him away for insanity, Calvin and Ruby begin a real relationship. Well as real as it can be with a girl who is not really real and whose actions can be changed simply by typing words on a page. If you think this sounds like a male fantasy, then you are in agreement with Calvin's brother (Chris Messina).

A trip to visit the brothers' mothers (Annette Bening) and her boyfriend (Antonio Banderas) adds some humorous scenes while also signaling the beginning of trouble for Ruby and Calvin. It turns out that bringing your invented dream girl into the real world doesn't always work so well. Who would have thought? There is much humor in the film including Steve Coogan as Calvin's mentor. Deborah Ann Woll has a scene as Calvin's ex-girlfriend and it is probably the best written scene in the film. Really good insight into how two people's view of the same relationship can vary greatly.

The story can be looked at from different perspectives. It certainly serves as insight into how a writer's mind can work. Many writers need a muse ... but few get to create their own! More importantly, it makes a statement on how we (well, not me) often try to control and manipulate the other person in our relationships. This is a sterling reminder to be careful what you ask for ... you just might get it. www.moviereviewsfromthedark.wordpress.com

The unique Zoe Kazan wrote and stars in this quirky, fascinating, and original film about a writer with writer's block (Paul Dano, Kazan's real-life main squeeze) who invents the girl of his dreams, writes about her, and watches her become real.

While this film has been billed by reviewers and marketed by publicists as a "romantic comedy," in many ways it's not. It's both more and less. Less predictable, certainly, as the endings of modern romantic comedies are notoriously pat. More ... what? Strange? Edgy? Depressing even (at times)? Maybe all of the above. But ultimately upbeat.

The gifted Paul Dano has created a character - a young woman - who is exactly who he wants, or at least so he thinks. It's not until he meets his ex at a party 2/3 of the way through the movie that the audience really begins to understand what's going on. And it's not just hearts and flowers. But no spoilers here.

That Kazan pulled off both this original idea AND the ability to end it in a way that made sense yet left unanswered questions that should be unanswered is testimony to her screen-writing talents. Her roots here are strong: both of her screen writing parents and her famed grandfather Elia. But Zoe is also extremely appealing as the film's title character, showing a range of acting skills that could make her a star.

And for fun, we get Bening, Banderas, and Gould, all enlivening the proceedings.

Original movies are hard to find, and when you find them, often hard to watch. This film is both original and very watchable.

Paul Dano plays Calvin, a dead sad and dead serious young writer, who has apparently used the royalties from his one hugely popular novel to finance an ultramodern iPod-themed house, and yet still chooses to use a typewriter. In the depths of his writer's block he fashions a few choice sentences about a woman - Ruby Sparks - who is his dream girl. His literature makes her literal, and Calvin is able to control her moods and actions by typing. It's reminiscent of Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell, although Dano plays his part more like Jim Carrey might have done a decade ago: broad and physical, but with subtlety and pathos behind the mugging.

In a welcome tonal shift, Ruby Sparks moves gradually from hip romantic comedy to meta-horror - although it feels like there's a bit too much of the former, as I got the feeling that the zany pixie girl and self- hating writer stereotypes were being indulged more than they were being deconstructed. So what could have been a really interesting Woody Allen-esque philosophical rabbit-hole ends up cutting a far more familiar, shallower groove. But still, it's satisfying to see a cautionary flourish to go with the wish fulfilment.

Ruby herself is played by Zoë Kazan, granddaughter of the great Elia (On the Waterfront et al), with great energy and some charm. Kazan also wrote the film. So we have a film about art imitating life, written by the actor playing the title character, starring her real-life partner (Dano), and directed by the real-life partnership of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (best known for Little Miss Sunshine). So it's a helluva conundrum; but it's also well-made, sometimes funny and thought- provoking, and includes amusing cameos from Elliot Gould, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan and Antonio Banderas - so definitely worth a watch.

The storyline is original and very well written. I thought it was great. It's not about superheroes or an action movie or a thriller or a blockbuster. So who would enjoy it? Geeks, smart people, romantics, sci- fi lovers ... Regarding the latter, I'm sure the writer was not thinking in terms of sci fi, but it meets my #1 criterion for great sci fi, namely, it changes one aspect of ordinary reality, preferably the here and now and not the distant future, and through that change gives insight into that ordinary reality that we live in. Despite its' being about impossible fiction, it seemed more real than most movies. A lot of the best writing has a writer as the main character - so maybe it's true that one should write about what one knows best. Of course, it's about romance and objectification as well and that's well done as well.

I liked the movie a lot. I felt very moved and intrigued both by the premise and the complications to move the story along.

Big but: The lead character, Calvin, is not believable as a "genius novelist" nor even as a pretty good one. Why? He has no idea how to make Ruby, whom he completely controls, subtle and complex the way any good novelist would his characters.

He paints her happy and sad, joyful and childishly clinging with such broad brush strokes he is an incompetent "inventor" of a character/person, let alone his dream girl. If you or I created an automaton, WE might swing back and forth to the extremes while trying to adjust his/her behavior. Calvin should be an expert not a tyro at subtle shades of behavior. Granted, if he got her just right, we would have no crisis to force the story to a resolution.

And the resolution is Hollywood sugar. In Europe or Israel, the hero would be left with the sad results of his failure. (He stares out to sea on a deserted beach to ponder what happened and his bleak future?) Here, the filmmakers insist we leave the theater feeling good about Calvin and Ruby.

The film is a lot different from the trailer. It's very good, brilliant actually, fun and enjoyable but much darker. The film shows it as a light weight,playful film, not as a psychotic man who needs to control every small detail in his life including the woman he loves. It is truly brilliant, but go in with an open mind, don't leave the trailer to guide you through the film. I sound like I'm giving it a bad impression. I don't mean to, I came out with my dad and I absolutely loved it, we spent most of the journey home contemplating what we had seen. And in all truths, I want the mum's house, and their water slide, and more!

In an age of cheesy, predictable, and sometimes simply stupid romantic comedies, let's thank the romcom gods for the work of brilliance known as Ruby Sparks. The films stars Paul Dano as a man with a a huge amount of genius when it comes to writing fiction and an equally large amount of ineptness when it comes to relationships. He finds strong inspiration in a dream about a girl and quickly writes many pages about her, only to find the living, breathing, figment of his imagination in his kitchen. Although she seems the perfect girl in every way (he made her that way, after al), having a girlfriend that he can totally control with a few strokes of a keyboard comes with a price. As a writer myself, I have found a few books and movies in which I look at the basic idea of the plot and wonder, how did the writer come up with that? This was one of those plots. On top of it, brilliant quirkiness of both Dano and Kazan plays up the wonders of this film. To some this review up in two words: see it.

This movie is a charming little film from a very exciting new talent, Zoe Kazan, who i think is going to excel with her next foray into screen writing. While watching this movie it's rather obvious that it's written by a first time writer, that's not to say that it's not well written because it is, it's just a little underwritten, some characters are underdeveloped and at times it lags without any type of direction. It may sound like i didn't like this movie but i did, it's quirky and very indie which is the kind of stuff i like, it has two leads who are excellent in their roles (it does help that the audience knows they are in love in real life), and it has a wonderful supporting cast, in particular the always excellent Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas who impressed me in a role i'd never picture him in otherwise.

One particular part of the film i like was the realistic portrayal of a modern day relationship, it's not all romance and love every day, there are dark parts to a relationship and it's portrayed here very well, the relationship ups and downs are some of the best i've seen in a film in a very long time. The production and all that jazz is done very well, it's impressive how low budget indie films are made so well and stylish these days, i guess it's a good indication of a director knowing how to make a movie well.

Little Miss Sunshine it ain't, but it is a bit of fun for a Sunday afternoon, it's nice to see a new girl on the block taking on the quirky side of cinema, MOVE OVER ZOOEY DESCHANEL, THERE'S A NEW ZOE ABOUT TO TAKE YOUR CROWN. ;)

It is an honest movie. In the beginning it is cute and funny, but then it quickly turns very serious and a little bit dark. Calvin creates a very similar relationship, to his last, with a woman who appears after he writes about her. It is a movie about their struggles as he attempts to create his perfect relationship by changing it on paper. It is a beautifully written story. Most movies today are about the special effects and don't have enough of the story. This movie is full of story and a great one. You will leave the movie theater feeling like you just watched a really great movie! Must see! This is what movie making should be about.

The story of an author incidentally bringing one of his characters to life can go a lot of different directions. There's an inherent fantasy element, an obvious comedy angle, and in the case of "Ruby Sparks," some dramatic potential as well. Actress Zoe Kazan's screen writing debut tries to touch on all three.

Paul Dano stars as Calvin Weir-Fields, a writer whose first novel became an American sensation but between writer's block and a mess of psychological issues he can't follow it up. But he's been having dreams of a girl lately, which starts to stir up some inspiration, and eventually — for reasons never explained — he somehow writes her into existence.

The predominant tone throughout most of "Ruby Sparks" is light-hearted. The cast contains numerous talents in supporting and in many cases less-than-supporting roles, in part likely due to the directing duo of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, whose film debut "Little Miss Sunshine" made waves throughout Hollywood and earned Alan Arkin an Oscar.

Veterans Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas make big impressions with little screen time, while emerging or underrated talents Steve Coogan ("Tropic Thunder"), Chris Messina ("The Newsroom"), Alia Shawkat ("Arrested Development") and Aasif Mandvi ("The Daily Show") round things out with pivotal roles, generally adding to the film's lighter tones.

Kazan really nails the humor, both as a writer and an actress, when Calvin discovers Ruby is not in fact a figment of his imagination and later on when he tries to control her through his writing. The struggle comes when the script shifts from fun to dramatic. She has trouble finding the right conceit to bring this silly fantasy to an appropriate boil. She ultimately has to shoehorn several flaws into Calvin's character in order to create a problem and consequently a full story arc.

The premise and rules surrounding Ruby's existence mean the potential directions for the story are limitless. Calvin could go as far as to manipulate her for his own desires or accept her as how she is and live happily ever after. So while the film is busy playing around all quirky indie comedy-like, the audience has been running through the countless scenarios and will come to expect a meaningful turn of events. Kazan chooses to focus on whether the ideal love interest of the male protagonist as depicted in works of fiction could ever exist in real life.

There's a sharp anti-misogynistic and feminist undercurrent inherent in that concept, which Kazan tries to frame it as a question of whether Calvin can truly be happy with a Ruby who acts of her own volition, or at least with allowing her to. Considering she's his dream girl and he's come up dry in his romantic life for years prior to her inception, you think he'd accept her and not be stupid enough to jeopardize his luck, but there wouldn't be a film there. Instead, Calvin becomes preoccupied with losing her.

Given the number of unlikable characters Dano has played over the years, the unflattering characteristics that emerge in Calvin come across with ease through Dano's performance. He's actually a rather pathetic and forlorn character start to finish, with his lone redeeming quality being his humility in a world quick to call him a genius. He's a amusing to watch in the beginning, but you'll wish he weren't so completely clueless.

Considering Ruby is a fictional character in two senses, Kazan gives her a realistic flair. When Calvin messes with her a bit, however, she enters some awkward territory and given the nature of her character, we never treat Ruby as a complete, real person, though we wish Calvin did.

"Ruby Sparks" gets lost in trying to figure out what kind of story it wants to tell, namely because outside of a fantastical concept, there's not an obvious one. Kazan seems most interested in making Calvin feel horrible about the way he's handled Ruby so that he can redeem himself, though in doing so she collapses her feminism argument — if that was even her intention.

Still, Kazan fuses her debut with endearing qualities though she'd be well advised to lean toward comedy in the future. Dayton and Faris handle the humor best and seem unsure how to handle its spiral into the bizarre.

All the other talents involved in "Ruby Sparks" elevate the material to a certain level. They all appear to be having a great time doing it too, even if the core conflict they so wonderfully support is much less sure of itself.

~Steven C

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According to the late author Michael Talbot, "What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Magic is our birthright, no more or less miraculous than our ability to compute the reality we want when we are in our dreams." In the comedy-drama Ruby Sparks, however, directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) take the idea that we naturally create our own experience and turn it into a magic trick, a one-of-a-kind miracle that provides ego gratification and manipulation of others.

Written by Zoe Kahan, Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) is a thirty-something writer who achieved success in his teens with a breakthrough novel but has been unable to write a follow-up for ten years and is seeing a therapist (Elliott Gould). Living alone in a spacious middle-class home with his newly acquired dog Scotty, Calvin's only friend and companion is his brother Harry (Chris Messina) who provides advice to him about dealing with women, a subject that does not seem to be high on his list of priorities after his girlfriend, fellow writer Lila (Deborah Ann Woll), left him. Following a dream he has about a girl he meets in the park, Calvin creates the girl as a character in the story he is writing, giving her a name and details of her background.

He becomes so obsessed with the character that he tells his brother Harry that he is falling in love with her. Things begin to get really strange, however, when the young woman, Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kahan), shows up as a real person in his apartment (casually eating cereal) insisting that she is his girlfriend. The stunned author is so jolted by the fact that Ruby materializes out of thin air that he endlessly repeats the words: "Oh, my God, Wow, What's happening"? for a good five minutes. Calvin is only reassured that he is not crazy when other people tell him that they can also see Ruby.

He soon realizes, however, that Ruby is everything he ever wanted in a partner - intelligent, sweet, good looking, emotionally present, and nonthreatening and their relationship starts off well (as many do). When Calvin and Ruby visit his free-spirited mother (Annette Bening) and her lover (Antoinio Banderas), however, things start to unravel. Ruby, displaying a modicum of independence for the first time, decides to strip and go swimming with rival author (Steve Coogan) during a party, an event that causes Calvin, already upset by a run-in with his ex-girlfriend, no end of consternation. Clinging to his need for a compliant little dream girl, Calvin cannot accept the real Ruby with her new self-awareness and mood swings.

He soon learns that he can control her behavior simply by typing a sentence or two about her on his anachronistic typewriter. If he wants her to speak another language, all he has to do is to type it on the page and she follows like a slave. If he wants her to be happy, writing about this turns on her manic mode. Carrying his power to the extreme, Calvin decides, in a sequence that is thoroughly off-putting, to make Ruby jump through hoops to satisfy his thwarted ego, showing little concern for Ruby as a human being. Ruby Sparks has the making of a film that is worth seeing. It has a good story, better than average performances, and an intriguing premise, but its humor is forced and the dialogue is non-stop irritating.

The forever glum Dano, barely believable as a famous novelist, is even less so as a romantic lead and, though Dano and Kahan are a couple in real life, their on-screen chemistry leaves much to be desired. Ruby comes across as little more than a construct, a device of the script rather than a fully alive human being. Although the film flirts with the idea of satirizing the typical Hollywood romantic comedy, its insatiable cuteness makes it borderline insufferable, and its use of standard hippie caricatures, marijuana smoke-ins, and wall-to-wall use of the F word, negate any aspirations it may have had to say something fresh.

What do you do if you're a struggling actress searching for the right part that will help separate you from the hungry pack of millions of other starving wannabes? Well…you write one for yourself of course. Zoe Kazan, who has made a living with smaller supporting roles in a variety of films, (Revolutionary Road, Happythankyoumoreplease, It's Complicated) writes and stars as the title character in Ruby Sparks, a role that is bound to officially put her on the map. She doesn't allow you to take your eyes off her, and has loads of fun playing with the mass amount of emotions that come from being the figment of a possible crazy person's imagination.

Ruby Sparks is creative, original, highly entertaining and one of the best films of the year. Directors, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, team up for the first time since 2006's breakout film, Little Miss Sunshine, and provide the same zeal and love that made it a huge success.

The rest of the cast is nothing short of phenomenal. Paul Dano (Cowboys & Aliens, There Will Be Blood) continues to build on his reputation as one of the strongest actors of his generation. Great actors make great choices with their role selection, and Paul once again shows he has fantastic taste. Chris Messina, who seems to appear everywhere (Film…Julie & Julia, Greenberg, Away We Go, Devil, Like Crazy, TV…The Newsroom, Damages) is strong as the side man once again, and is more than ready to be major star. Acting legends Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas and Elliot Gould jump in for short periods of time making huge waves and leaving long lasting impressions.

Unlike most romantic type movies, Ruby Sparks doesn't feel like a retread Kate Hudson…Sandra Bullock…Katherine Heigl cheese fest, and is filled with a fun, creative energy that is too often missed in rom-com's. Ruby Sparks is superb on all fronts, and as a movie of the year candidate shouldn't be missed.

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This is a movie that you can either love or hate, based on how you see it.

On one side, it is a fantasy movie with "Groundhog day" accents (no, the day doesn't repeat again and again).

On the other side, it is a beautiful metaphor which if you recognize, it is impossible not to give it a 10. Not because it is perfect. It has charm but it is a bit slow paced at times and the execution is not amazing.

But rather because ... it feels so familiar. It is one of those movies describing what we've done, what we've felt, like it is our story. It is a different setting, different people, different circumstances but it is our personal story, at least for a large majority of people.

This is why I like it and this is why I've decided to write this review. It made me think. It made me feel. It made me remember some parts of my life.

It made me go over the plot holes and the "how the hell this can happen" type of scenes but rather, just think ...

"Would I do the same?" and most importantly ...

"Have I've done the same?".

That's why you should watch this movie.

The plot is not that important. The underlying message of this movie is. While I don't like romantic comedies so much, I can place it next to two other movies "If I stay" and "Tres Metro El Cielo". And while these two movies may seem as a "How to boost your estrogen level in 90 minutes" types of art, they also carry a very profound lesson.

Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) is struggling with writer's block. One day he finds romance by writing his female love interest Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) into existence. As their relationship builds, he can't help but try to control her thru his writing. This leads a dark climax.

There is real chemistry between the two real-life couple. I liked the two actors, but I felt there wasn't enough tension in the story. It's a good watch, but not a breakout film that it could have been.

I liked how it balanced itself between being a romantic comedy and a darker fiction movie. It's hard to say its a well written original movie because it's far from that with its cliche filled characters and their emotional roller coasters.

A successful but depressed writer is having trouble writing a new book. But when he finally does, he realizes that stuff he's writing is becoming real.

"Ruby Sparks" is a Comedy - Drama movie in which we watch a writer trying to overcome his writing block when he finds his romance with a very unusual way. The unusual way is that he created that character, she is his creation and he has power over her.

I liked this movie because it had a very interesting plot that was full of surprises and plot twists that I did not expect. The direction which was made by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, it was very good and they both did an excellent job on the way they presented the main characters, their fears, their goals and dreams, this made us understand them even better and relate to them. The interpretations of both Paul Dano who played as Calvin Weir-Fields and Zoe Kazan who played as Ruby Sparks (she is also the writer of the movie) were very good and their combination worked very well. In conclusion, I have to say that "Ruby Sparks" is a nice, interesting movie and I recommend everyone to watch it because I am sure you will have a great time watching it.