Ruby Sparks (2012)

 

Genre: Romance/ Comedy

Time: 1h 44mins

Directors: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton

Quick Summary: A novelist struggling with writer's block finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence.

This is what happens when an incel gets with an autistic woman.

I don't personally understand the obsession with Paul Dano, I find him offputting and a bit creepy. So he was perfect for this role as this sort of narcissistic incel who desperately wants a girlfriend, but in reality, only wants the idea of her. This shows the reality of what happens when you try to control someone, to fit in with your idea of a partner and refuse to allow for their flaws. Or even allow for them to be a person. 

The start is pretty whimsical and fun. We didn't actually get an explanation on how he actually brought her to life, but you can overlook that as that is not what this is about. The beginning of their romance is cute and quirky, it looks like they have a lot of fun. However the longer this goes on, the more flaws our writer sees and begins to show himself as Ruby breaks all these rules he had thought out for this perfect woman to follow. It gets sort of horrific in the third act where the actual control takes place, as he simply infantilizes her personality to always be happy and constantly need his attention, making her do whatever he wants her to do. It goes through a lot of the moral issues and how complex the situation is, all while being somewhat lighthearted for most of it. 

I liked the humour in this as it wasn't laugh-out-loud style or outrageously hilarious. It was gentle and charming, a lot of it focusing on the spoken dialogue. Honestly, I'm glad it was more lighthearted because the tone of this would have been very off and the serious scenes would have been strange to have bigger jokes crammed in. I do wish this would have become a more psychological rabbit hole of the two types, along with the fact he imagined her to life rather than just a simple indulgence of their relationship and the control of it. 

I did find both of their characters a bit insufferable, and irritating at separate times. Ruby, I can forgive as she is supposed to be written by a man who has no idea about how to write people, let alone write a woman who isn't a manic pixie dream girl. 

There isn't much I can say about this as this focuses on the downfall of their relationship and the attempts of control. The story isn't much of a story, it's more of an exploration which can be boring for some people, especially since it isn't really dramatic or exciting at times. It's realistic (Minus the girl being imagined to life and that he can control her with a typewriter), and shows the very real and sad parts of what relationships are like. 

My partner's thoughts: 

I thought it was a really good take on what men expect from women but the reality is a lot further from that expectation and that nobody is perfect, every relationship has up and down moments but Calvin did not deserve the happy ending after how he treated and rewrote her character because she didn't spend every waking second with him and the fact he made a book that no doubt earned him big bucks about how much of a cunt he was.

8/10

"Calvin Weir-Fields: I have you. I don't need anyone else.

Ruby Sparks: That's a lot of pressure."

"Calvin Weir-Fields: She wasn't happy. So I made her happy."