I recall while exiting the preview screening for this movie over a decade ago, I overheard a comment from a viewer (not a member of the press) who said almost everything you need to know about “Ruby Sparks:” “If it was sweeter and had more popular leads it could’ve been something like ‘Pretty Woman.’”
Off the Beaten Path
“Ruby Sparks” is a supremely well-executed movie that strays far from what we’ve come to expect from mainstream Hollywood romances and for that reason alone it will turn off more people than it will please. It is the kind of film that instantly fields a fervent cult following and is far deeper than it initially appears.Unlike most fantasy-based films, “Ruby Sparks” doesn’t include any sci-fi trappings and counts on its audience to be smart, open-minded, and somewhat malleable. It always manages to achieve a couple of those desired goals but never all at the same time. It’s a lot like that painful Meat Loaf power love ballad, “Two Out of three Ain’t Bad.”
Worthy Follow-Up
Calvin (Paul Dano) is a guy who wrote a monumentally successful J.D. Salinger “Catcher in the Rye”-type novel when he was 19 but has been stuck in writer’s block hell ever since. Now 29, Calvin is financially flush but artistically bereft. He’s tired of treading water placating his anxious publisher by churning out inconsequential and uninspired short story collections, while trying to come up with a suitably brilliant follow-up novel.
Ongoing sessions with his psychiatrist (Elliott Gould) do little to help Calvin, and it is only when he seizes on inspiration from his vivid dreams does he get on the right foot. Blurry and vague at first, the female apparition he conjures up nightly quickly engulfs him, and his creative reboot becomes an all-consuming obsession.
Multiple Quandaries
How empowered would you feel if you knew that whatever you tapped out on your keyboard could immediately be physically realized? What would you write? Would you tempt fate knowing that you could always go back and edit it, or would you try as much as you could to try to stay true to your own inner core values?What Calvin yearns for and gets, yet continuously amends, is at the heart of Kazan’s screenplay and it is the finest and most supremely rewarding portion of the movie. Being omnipotent regarding someone else’s future, behavior, and character traits is tantalizingly alluring but also presents a razor-sharp, double-edged sword, and a lot of moral second-guessing.
This is the second time Dano has collaborated with co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the couple that gave us “Little Miss Sunshine,” a similarly minded Oscar-winning indie gem that found huge crossover success with mainstream audiences. It was a dysfunctional family comedy that was totally unfit for family viewing, and much the same can be applied to “Ruby Sparks,” as an early-in-the-relationship date movie.
A big tip of the hat to Kazan (granddaughter of director Elia Kazan), who is also the lead in the current “She Said,” for taking big chances (and only occasionally missing the mark) in a genre that is so patently stale, predictable, and recycled. It will make direct contact with anyone who was told by a perspective mate, “That’s okay. I’ll fix you,” only to have them exit in short order in frustration at their inability to do actually so.
