Ruby Sparks is an intelligent romantic comedy directed by the couple Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
Creators
Zoe Kazan, the granddaughter of the famous writer and cinematographer Eliya Kazan, wrote the script of the modern version of the myth about Galatea and Pygmalion for the film version, and the film was directed by the hit 2006 film “Little Miss Happiness”, spouses Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton. The main role in the comedy was also played by Zoe, and her lover in real life, the leading actor of a depressed young man who did not part with Tom Nietzsche in the same Little Miss Happiness, Paul Dano, also became a shooting partner.
For the director's couple, who previously shot videos for world-famous performers, the debut in the big movie was a melancholy family comedy, highly praised by world critics. The second Ruby Sparks film is very similar to the debut project: both films are a soothing genre movie with an unobtrusive presence of a share of intellectualism and irony, not particularly affecting the effect of viewing, but making the paintings deliberately “shameful”.
Plot. Tie
The comedy “Ruby Sparks” (2012) introduces the viewer to the main character - the shy young writer Calvin Warfield (actor Paul Dano), who in less than 19 years released one novel, after which it was positioned as the hope of modern American literature. But the hopes of the public did not materialize: the hero fell into a deep personal and creative crisis. He only talked with his dog Scottie, a brutal, but stupid brother and a psychotherapist.
Once his daily routine is disturbed by a wonderful dream in which Kelvin dreams of a charming red-haired artist Ruby. On the rise of an emotional wave, the writer begins to create a new novel in which he describes in detail his relationship with a dreaming girl. The hero every day more and more immersed in an imaginary feeling, and his beloved inexplicably materializes. In the bachelor’s dwelling, female gizmos begin to appear. One fine day, waking up, Kelvin discovers in his kitchen a made-up beauty (actress Zoe Kazan).
Intrigue
Further, the main character of the comedy “Ruby Sparks”, having come to terms with the impossibility of what is happening, begins to enjoy the inexplicably romantic idyll that came from. However, after a short period of cloudless happiness, it is found that relations with an imaginary girl have the same problems as in real life: fatigue, disagreement in tastes and sympathies, scandals and tantrums. But the writer has a trouble-free way to resolve the problems - a typewriter. Kelvin continually makes adjustments to the image of his beloved, thereby knocking down the settings to a real disaster. For all its eccentricity, the Ruby Sparks storyline exactly follows the course and pace of the development of the events of the canonical romantic film.
Interchange (without spoilers)
The denouement of Ruby Sparks is completely worthy of the plot of the whole story, although a skeptical viewer may get the impression that everything ended too sweetly and smoothly. It seems that at the climax, the creators of the picture begin to be cautious, deliberately reducing all the unhappy possibilities of ending the development of the plot to one episode. But such a choice only enhances the commercial potential of the film, one of the most ridiculous and romantic comedies since the days of “500 Days of Summer”.
Actors
It is definitely worth noting that not only the creators coped with the task perfectly, but the acting ensemble of the picture made an invaluable contribution to the creation of the masterpiece. The lead actors are extremely attractive. The stories narrated by the main actors Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, you believe, you sympathize and empathize with their characters. The ability of an acting duet to create and present to the viewer the correct (life, not gloss-perfect) story, such that the viewer is inspired and believes, one can only unrestrainedly admire.
Zoe Kazan is an amazing person, her parents are screenwriters. Mother co-wrote the script for the exemplary film (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), and her father wrote the script for the movie “The Wrong Side of Fate,” so no one doubted her success as a screenwriter. But the girl surprised the public by showing outstanding acting in the movie "Ruby Sparks." The actors who worked with her were surprised by her talent for reincarnation.
Supporting actors, Steve Coogan in the role of Kelvin's literary agent, Annette Bening, who played the writer’s hippy mother, and Antonio Banderas, who embodied the image of the sculptor's stepfather on the screen, despite more acting experience and much more impressive filmography, did not overshadow the leading actors.
The film received positive reviews and was recommended for viewing by many viewers.