A quirky romcom? Consider this a 10 out 10 before I've even watched the film! That was a joke because you know everyone says I am really pretentious and...never mind. Hope you enjoy the review!
Ruby Sparks is directed by the same married couple that brought us the utterly fantastic Little Miss Sunshine. Interestingly the lead couple are also dating in real life as well. And much like Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks got a lot of praise from critics however most of those are art critics talking about the human condition or whatever, so take it with a grain of salt. But did I like it?
First, the plot. Ruby Sparks largely deals with what happens to a fantasy, when it's brought into reality. Despite the fantasy elements of the film, this is a film that you'll probably relate to pretty heavily and make you wish you had a partner you could control with typing. Then it reminds you of what a massive cunt you are.
Our protagonist is a hipster called Calvin Weir-Fields who wrote a bestselling novel when he was 19 but has done nothing since. Struggling with life, he starts to have recurring dreams of a girl called Ruby Sparks which inspires him to write again, write about her. Things start to get weirder and weirder until suddenly Ruby Sparks pops into existence and as reality starts to creep in, the fantasy becoming real isn't perhaps as good a thing as it would first seem.
What is odd from a narrative standpoint is the way that despite the films main device involving taking something of fantasy and giving it an injection of reality, it's concerned little with how Ruby Sparks came to be or how Calvin is able to control her by typing. He eventually sets her free and she is able to continue her life, seemingly alive properly now somehow. Not everything will be explained by the end, in fact very little will.
Interestingly the writer of Ruby Sparks, Zoe Kazan, also plays Ruby and if this is her début as a screenwriter, I can't wait to see what else she comes up with. She went into a lot of detail about her script, claiming a deep meaning here and a deep meaning there but most have written off the character of Ruby as simply being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl which in turn lets down most of her apparent deep, feminist subtext. Although I personally found the critics were missing the point.
Our protagonist is a hipster called Calvin Weir-Fields who wrote a bestselling novel when he was 19 but has done nothing since. Struggling with life, he starts to have recurring dreams of a girl called Ruby Sparks which inspires him to write again, write about her. Things start to get weirder and weirder until suddenly Ruby Sparks pops into existence and as reality starts to creep in, the fantasy becoming real isn't perhaps as good a thing as it would first seem.What is odd from a narrative standpoint is the way that despite the films main device involving taking something of fantasy and giving it an injection of reality, it's concerned little with how Ruby Sparks came to be or how Calvin is able to control her by typing. He eventually sets her free and she is able to continue her life, seemingly alive properly now somehow. Not everything will be explained by the end, in fact very little will.
Interestingly the writer of Ruby Sparks, Zoe Kazan, also plays Ruby and if this is her début as a screenwriter, I can't wait to see what else she comes up with. She went into a lot of detail about her script, claiming a deep meaning here and a deep meaning there but most have written off the character of Ruby as simply being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl which in turn lets down most of her apparent deep, feminist subtext. Although I personally found the critics were missing the point.
Personally I felt the point was this. The film is deliberate critique against the Kaufman come Allen style of romance film, most recently capsulised by (500) Days of Summer. So it deliberately sets itself up as a film of that genre, complete with almost a checklist of the tropes so it can begin to also criticise each part one by one. So although it can be enjoyed as just another quirky indie romance film with another Jess from New Girl clone at the heart of it, it's actually the anti-Garden State.
The most important thing is that the Jess clone isn't real, she is a creation by the lead protagonist Calvin. The implication of gender roles here could take up an entire post in itself, so let's leave that to the word 'symbolism'. And when she finally pings into reality, she starts getting things that the girls of these films never usually have, opinions and a personality. So things start to play out much as they would in the real world, rather than in the movies...in a movie. I didn't realise this would be so hard to explain.
So where the hipster girl became a male fantasy here in the real world, here in Ruby Sparks the male fantasy becomes the hipster girl and largely the conflict is caused by the males idealism of the fantasy girl. The central romance between Calvin and Ruby is played for exactly what it is, a male fantasy, complete with actual fantasy elements as a direct subversion of the genre.
The film doesn't just use these metaphors for the genre as a whole either, it actually uses them within the films diegesis also which really shows a masterfully realised universe and set of characters that takes aspects of the quirky girl romance fantasy and processes it through reality to see where it can go wrong or taking it to its literal extremes. It's depressing and cynical sure but we really share a very similar frame of mind, so it worked well for me.
I suppose that is a large part of Ruby Sparks charm, rather than bloating with concepts like so many fantasy films, it largely has one and plays with that one concept to its full potential. What Calvin has is a way of tweaking and building the perfect girlfriend, just by writing sentences and so what Kazan does is both play this for the films funniest and darkest moments while always being creative and having a lot of fun with the possibilities of what a man would do if he could build the perfect woman by typing and what exactly the perfect woman is in the eyes of a man.
If I had to find a criticism of the film, I suppose I would complain about the side characters. I mean this is a mild point and I don't want it to break your decision to watch the film, but I want to be balanced. Although there are important side characters like Calvin's brother or shrink, many of the side characters or side aspects to the central relationship aren't explored enough to really have any reason to be here. The film attempts to create metaphors for what is happening to the central characters by projecting those through the side characters but this also isn't explored enough to feel like anything other than filler. You could trim basically every side character and story minus the ones I mentioned out and not lose anything
So do I recommend it? After watching Ruby Sparks I know I'm going to have to redo my best of 2012 list, it's that good. If you're a fan of (500) Days of Summer, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind and other such films of that genre you'll absolutely love this and it just works so well as a critique of the Zooey Deschanel phenomenon without ever getting ranty. I'm so glad to finally find a new (500) Days of Summer!
Think About It!
-Locke
The most important thing is that the Jess clone isn't real, she is a creation by the lead protagonist Calvin. The implication of gender roles here could take up an entire post in itself, so let's leave that to the word 'symbolism'. And when she finally pings into reality, she starts getting things that the girls of these films never usually have, opinions and a personality. So things start to play out much as they would in the real world, rather than in the movies...in a movie. I didn't realise this would be so hard to explain.So where the hipster girl became a male fantasy here in the real world, here in Ruby Sparks the male fantasy becomes the hipster girl and largely the conflict is caused by the males idealism of the fantasy girl. The central romance between Calvin and Ruby is played for exactly what it is, a male fantasy, complete with actual fantasy elements as a direct subversion of the genre.
The film doesn't just use these metaphors for the genre as a whole either, it actually uses them within the films diegesis also which really shows a masterfully realised universe and set of characters that takes aspects of the quirky girl romance fantasy and processes it through reality to see where it can go wrong or taking it to its literal extremes. It's depressing and cynical sure but we really share a very similar frame of mind, so it worked well for me.I suppose that is a large part of Ruby Sparks charm, rather than bloating with concepts like so many fantasy films, it largely has one and plays with that one concept to its full potential. What Calvin has is a way of tweaking and building the perfect girlfriend, just by writing sentences and so what Kazan does is both play this for the films funniest and darkest moments while always being creative and having a lot of fun with the possibilities of what a man would do if he could build the perfect woman by typing and what exactly the perfect woman is in the eyes of a man.
If I had to find a criticism of the film, I suppose I would complain about the side characters. I mean this is a mild point and I don't want it to break your decision to watch the film, but I want to be balanced. Although there are important side characters like Calvin's brother or shrink, many of the side characters or side aspects to the central relationship aren't explored enough to really have any reason to be here. The film attempts to create metaphors for what is happening to the central characters by projecting those through the side characters but this also isn't explored enough to feel like anything other than filler. You could trim basically every side character and story minus the ones I mentioned out and not lose anythingSo do I recommend it? After watching Ruby Sparks I know I'm going to have to redo my best of 2012 list, it's that good. If you're a fan of (500) Days of Summer, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind and other such films of that genre you'll absolutely love this and it just works so well as a critique of the Zooey Deschanel phenomenon without ever getting ranty. I'm so glad to finally find a new (500) Days of Summer!
Think About It!
-Locke
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