Ruby Sparks

Delightfully enchanting
Speaking as somebody who writes short stories as a hobby in addition to film reviews; "Ruby Sparks" is pretty spectacular. Just the idea of one of your stories becoming a reality is basically every author's dream. Unless you're a horror writer, then you might hope it never leaves the page. Thinking about that somehow happening is inspiring in itself though. If that was a guideline, to only write stories you think deserve to exist in the real world, then we'd have a very different literary back catalog.

Paul Dano brings yet another extremely relatable character to the screen. His ongoing struggle to come up with a good story really hits home hard as does his issues with women. Falling in love with your own creation seems a lot more reasonable than attempting to swim in the dating world. Dano's performance is gut-wrenching at times because you know where at least part of this story is going and it's not going to end well; an emotional breakdown is inevitable. Dano is also...

Pleasant romcom with serious undertones
In "Ruby Sparks" (104 min.), Calvin (played by Paul Dano) plays a writer who found great acclaim as a late teenager but now 10 years later is lonely and struggling with writer's block. In his dreams he meets the perfect girl whom he calls Ruby (played by Zoe Kazan), he starts writing about it, and then one morning Calvim wakes up only to find Ruby in his kitchen, fixing breakfast. It's a miracle, right? Is it the magic in the typewriter (Calvin types "Ruby speaks French" and a moment later she speaks French)? No explanation is given. However now that Ruby is alive and well, she does not always act EXACTLY like Calvin wants her to, and the temptation to run to the typewriter and fix every signle problem is great, but what would that do to their relationship in the long run? To give away more of the plot would ruin your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Several comments: the movie is intended as a romcom, and there are indeed many...

A fun movie
This movie is completely under the radar. It is tremendously enjoyable and has an endearing story line. I am not sure why it is not more generally known to be good.

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