Review: Ruby Sparks

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She's real.

Calvin (Paul Dano) is a novelist who had success at a young age. He's still young, mind you, in his late 20's now. However, he's been suffering from writer's block. After having a dream about a mystery girl, he gets the inspiration to write about her. She is Ruby Sparks. (Zoe Kazan, also the film's writer) She's his dream girl and their relationship is perfect on paper. Suddenly, Ruby shows up in Calvin's apartment. After she begins interacting with the people around him, including his brother Harry (Chris Messina) Calvin realizes that he's not going crazy. But can he resist not writing about her again?

There's a part in the film where Calvin says something along the lines of "I'm not going to try to explain this." and "I don't know how this happened." The film takes that same approach. Who knows how Ruby appears out of thin air? It doesn't matter. What matters is their story. Kazan and Dano have great chemistry together. (no wonder they've been together in real life for awhile.) I appreciate Kazan's vision, it's hard for me to like romantic comedies, but she made me like this one. I just really enjoyed her point of view. I expected myself to make a lot of comparisons to Stranger Than Fiction, but Ruby Sparks has a totally different feel. Even if the ending was predictable, it was still a breath of fresh air that is greatly needed in this often generic genre.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B+

Memorable Quote: "I like her little legs." - Calvin (Paul Dano)

Comments

  1. JoshAugust 21, 2012 at 9:05 PM

    Glad you liked it. Can't wait to see it myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. s.August 22, 2012 at 8:19 AM

    Great review! The film sounds very interesting I'll try to watch it. I loved Stranger than fiction.

    ReplyDelete

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