Film Review: Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks. Rated M (coarse language, sexual references and drug use). 104 minutes. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Screenplay by Zoe Kazan.

Verdict: Be careful what you wish for.

With their breakout hit Little Miss Sunshine (2006), the husband and wife directing team of Dayton and Faris delivered a heartfelt and unconventional take on the ‘road trip film’, while debut screenwriter Michael Arndt took home the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. With Ruby Sparks, they’ve done it again – taking on a debut writer (Kazan, who also stars as Ruby), and delivering a wonderfully inventive and deceptively complex little gem of a film that successfully turns the romantic comedy genre on its head.

Neurotic young novelist Calvin (Paul Dano) is experiencing a severe case of writer’s block. It’s been ten years since his debut novel, and everyone around him is beginning to think he may be finished as a writer. When his therapist Dr Rosenthal (Elliott Gould) counsels him to write something and not be obsessed about how good it needs to be, Calvin begins to write about the beautiful girl in his dreams. When she comes to life, the rules of love (and life) are changed forever.

Kazan (Me and Orson Welles, Revolutionary Road) and Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood) are simply perfect in the lead roles, and their marvellously engaging performances are among the finest this year. The brilliant sequence when Calvin discovers Ruby downstairs making him breakfast is first-rate farce – setting the bar very high for all that is to follow.

Apart from the needless and distracting detour to meet Calvin’s mother (Annette Bening) and her partner (Antonio Banderas), Kazan’s script is practically perfect – no more so than when the subplot about how Calvin can control every aspect of Ruby’s life by simply typing it on paper escorts them both into an unexpected and finely wrought dramatic realm. Lesser talent, in less-capable hands, would have fallen at this significant hurdle, but the fact that we care about these wonderfully idiosyncratic characters as much as we do is a great testament to the outstanding quality of the two lead performances.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.