“Ruby Sparks” directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

• Tweet
• Pin It

Dan Walker on Film

Ruby Sparks

I wasn’t planning on seeing this movie. I’d seen the trailer a few times.  It didn’t sell me. I also have an aversion to Paul Dano, who was suitably oily and annoying as the preacher in There Will Be Blood, though I feel that role would have been better with someone else (no one in particular) in it.  The only other movie I know him from is L.I.E., where he was sufficient, nothing more.  I like re-watching episodes of The Sopranos and recognized him in an episode as one of A.J.’s friends.  In his few scenes, he was barely a presence. Based on what I’d seen, I didn’t think he’d be effective in a lead role.

Here Dano plays Calvin Weir-Fields, an LA novelist ten years after his big success, and just after his girlfriend of five years left him following his father’s death. He’s painfully shy about dating and suffering writer’s block.  A dream about a girl inspires him to write. He names the girl Ruby Sparks and begins to write prolifically.—so prolifically that he doesn’t want to stop, even to sleep.  He confesses to his therapist (Elliot Gould in a minimal role and looking more like Francis Ford Coppola than Elliot Gould) that the book he’s writing has become a substitute girlfriend.  One morning he wakes up and finds Ruby in his kitchen as though she’s been with him all the time.

He understandably believes she’s a figment of his imagination until other people acknowledge her presence.  I really liked the scene when that revelation finally hits him, which was well-played by everyone in it.  When his brother Harry (Chris Messina) skeptically goes to Calvin’s home to meet this dream creation, he is surprised to find Ruby actually there.  Like any rational-thinking person, Harry starts looking for a logical explanation for all this, but he can’t find one.

The brothers discover together that Calvin can change Ruby simply by typing more of the book. She immediately adopts whatever attributes or history Calvin creates (such as speaking only in French).  Harry’s mind races with (predictable) possibilities while Calvin is more cautious.

Because I really like movies where one person’s fiction is someone else’s actual life (like Mark Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction and, to a lesser extent, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show, Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose Of Cairo and Wolfgang Peterson’s The Neverending Story), I was completely drawn into the story unfolding before me.

All the actors were engaging and Dano is really suited to his role.  Even when he asserts himself, he’s vulnerable and unsure, which is an interesting combination of traits to display simultaneously.  Calvin and Ruby’s visit to Big Sur to see Calvin’s mother Gertrude (Annette Bening, an alumnus of San Francisco State University like me) and her boyfriend, Mort (Antonio Banderas), added a nice diversion and energy to the story.  The house/indoor jungle Mort built was the visual highlight of the movie.  Gertrude’s conversion from polo-shirt wearing conservative to free spirit was clearly inspired her husband’s passing and her relationship with Mort.  Her marriage and transformation would have been an interesting story on its own.  Once I realized the script was written by Zoe Kazan, who played Ruby, it made perfect sense that she was able to flesh out the character so wonderfully, displaying a wide range of emotion, mood and perspective.

The film makes you ask yourself how you would create a character if you were in the same position and then answers that question for you as the story goes on.

Dan

**********************************************************************************

I enjoyed this movie so much I didn’t realize the film was jumping/vibrating at one part until we were given free passes as we left the theatre.  Someone must have complained.

I also had an extra appreciation for the movie having just seen The Bourne Legacy, a predictably well-made,  fast-paced, but extremely intense and violent series entry.  Almost every conversation had you on edge, wondering if one of the participants was about to kill the other. The senseless work-place shooting rampage was shocking and went on far too long.

It also made me wonder if it isn’t time people start questioning the wisdom of creating  movies  with carnage like this, as well as violent video games.  It’s easy to desensitize, influence, and inspire someone walking a thin line to emulate this.  Some people actually brought their young children to the movie.  Several people walked out.

Related Posts

• 

  Reaching the Two Year Mark
  Reaching the Two Year Mark
• 

  Memorial Day 2013
  Memorial Day 2013
• 

  Nézet-Séguin Takes Charge
  Nézet-Séguin Takes Charge
• 

  You Look Marvelous, Dahling……..!
  You Look Marvelous, Dahling……..!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply