Ruby Sparks

Name: Ruby Sparks
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy, Romance
Released: July 25, 2012
Duration: 104 min
Rating: 67
Cast: Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan

2012

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Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 129 Ratings

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 129 Ratings

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Ruby Sparks

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Movie Details & Credits

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: July 25, 2012 | R

Starring: Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan

Summary: Calvin is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing – as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby, in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completelyCalvin is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing – as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby, in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person. (Fox Searchlight)… Expand

Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Genre(s): Fantasy, Comedy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 104 min

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Critic Reviews

The Playlist Katie Walsh

Jul 23, 2012

Ruby Sparks hits that sweet emotional spot much in the same way "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" does. While you are at once charmed by the whimsy and romance, there's still a gut punch of emotional rawness just waiting to be delivered. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Jul 24, 2012

Parts of Ruby Sparks are glowing and gentle. Others are harsh. Still others are wrenching. The transitions are expertly handled, never seeming jarring or inappropriate. If the movie feels like two shorter pieces grafted at the middle, that's an intentional decision. The filmmakers give us something approaching a traditional romantic comedy before deconstructing it. Read full review

James Mottram

Oct 1, 2012

Smart, literate and romantic, it's this year's (500) Days Of Summer, but with a few more shadows. Like Calvin, you'll find it hard to resist Ms Sparks. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Jul 25, 2012

A movie about the power of the imagination really becomes a movie about a certain element of surrender - about the release of power - that is practically a requirement for loving somebody. Read full review

Betsy Sharkey

Jul 25, 2012

There is a great deal of playfulness between the couple that will touch the romantic in most. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Aug 9, 2012

The best stuff comes early in Ruby Sparks, which was written by Kazan (granddaughter of Elia) and directed by the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine). Read full review

Rex Reed

Jul 24, 2012

The script is breezy, but neither of the two leads have the heft or charm to carry an entire feature-length film - separately or together. Read full review

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User Reviews

RoraEst

Jul 5, 2014

Zoe Kazan is really a great writer. This movie was so perfect in many ways. The directing, the cinematography, the soundtracks, the script, the angles, all of them were so fit that made this movie was phenomenal. The climax, they nailed it. Screwed my mind for a month or longer. I cried.Zoe Kazan is really a great writer. This movie was so perfect in many ways. The directing, the cinematography, the soundtracks, the script, the angles, all of them were so fit that made this movie was phenomenal. The climax, they nailed it. Screwed my mind for a month or longer. I cried. This comedy movie made me cry. How was that even possible?!

Paul Dano was really awesome. His acting on this movie was his best so far. Most of his characters from his other movies look similar, kind of a depression character or something, but in this movie, he gave me a new exciting and his real original act, like nobody could act this character except him. He's enchanted.

I do love the cinematography. I thought this movie should get lots of awards. I thought Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan should get many awards. Thank you.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MegWhiteley

Jul 25, 2012

Fantastic Movie.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

JTKelley

Aug 10, 2012

Likely won't receive Oscar attention, but this film deserves it. Kazan's script tears apart the unrealistic male fantasy of the manic pixie dream girl by bringing the cliche to life in an offbeat, yet dark, comedy with interesting messages about the nature of adult relationships. There mayLikely won't receive Oscar attention, but this film deserves it. Kazan's script tears apart the unrealistic male fantasy of the manic pixie dream girl by bringing the cliche to life in an offbeat, yet dark, comedy with interesting messages about the nature of adult relationships. There may not be a better script in all of 2012.… Expand

5 of 6 users found this helpful51

JamesL

Aug 28, 2012

A pleasant surprise where intelligence was used instead of violence to satisfy the film goer. I rated this an 8 because it was genuine and original. Although it played off some films and their themes I have seen in the past, it was such a refreshing change from the onslaught of violence thatA pleasant surprise where intelligence was used instead of violence to satisfy the film goer. I rated this an 8 because it was genuine and original. Although it played off some films and their themes I have seen in the past, it was such a refreshing change from the onslaught of violence that I was so relieved. This will definitely make my top ten films list. I enjoyed the fact that there were several layers to it as well. The writer and the writers power to control his character wes interesting. How he handled all of of that with out killing her like every other movie I have seen lately. A great and pleasant surprise..… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MarcDoyle

Aug 7, 2012

It's a much darker film than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. What I think might have happened is that the script could have used some tightening up, but the production was probably loathe to second guess the star/writer. And as is true in most of the films he's in, Chris Messina (theIt's a much darker film than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. What I think might have happened is that the script could have used some tightening up, but the production was probably loathe to second guess the star/writer. And as is true in most of the films he's in, Chris Messina (the brother) steals just about every scene that he's in.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Compi24

Oct 19, 2020

Definitely more of a fascinating thought experiment than it is a satisfying romantic comedy, "Ruby Sparks" finds Zoe Kazan at her most metaphysically flexible, filling both the role of screenwriter and titular performer in a movie about an author whose creation literally blinks off the pageDefinitely more of a fascinating thought experiment than it is a satisfying romantic comedy, "Ruby Sparks" finds Zoe Kazan at her most metaphysically flexible, filling both the role of screenwriter and titular performer in a movie about an author whose creation literally blinks off the page and into corporeality. Add in the fact that Kazan's real life partner, Paul Dano, occupies the role of the aforementioned writer and you've got yourself the potential for a real mind-bender. In reality, though, "Ruby Sparks" ends up playing things rather safely, focusing heavily on the ethical dilemma at hand and how the protagonist's neuroses revolve around, effect and even change in relation to it. This approach is ultimately to the film's benefit, with Dano and Kazan's performances really anchoring the drama and philosophical urgency running throughout the narrative. Not a bad experience by any stretch.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Shiira

Sep 21, 2012

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Meant as a pointed rebuke against the putative quintessence of women in contemporary film(both sides of the divide), the screenwriter, a female one, as a sort of excerpt from a corrective manifesto, says that "quirky, messy women aren't real," in which she uses Harry, the novelist's brother, as her voice, in a scene where he reads Calvin's manuscript about such a non-woman("You wrote a girl," he adds.), that addresses the trend of infantilizing women. Ruby is just one more waif, another suppositious female asservated from a patriarchal fantasy. Harry tells him, "You don't know jacks*it about women." With this observation, Harry encapsulates the bane of the genre, the romantic comedy, as a whole. A film such as Life as We Know It, a rom-com about godparents who are suddenly bequeathed their mutual friends' baby after a fatal car crash, makes you want to scream along with Mila Kunis, when she vociferates loudly, "Shut up, Katherine Heigl, you stupid liar!" in Friends with Benefits. Heigl's character acts like a child. Womanhood seems to have escaped her. Smiling wildly, despite the gravity of the moment, Holly could be thirteen when the lawyer reads the conditions of the will. On the indie front, Zooey Deschanel, known for her hyper-adorability, which can be sometimes ingratiating, sometimes affected, starred, appropriately enough, in both All the Real Girls, and Flakes. In Ruby Sparks, Harry advises Calvin to write about Lila, the last woman he dated. Calvin, however, is more savvy than he lets on; he doesn't need a lecture; he knows "women are different up close," and that they can be "mean as f*ck," but the former "voice of his generation" shies away from dealing with his ex, choosing instead to write about a servile and uncomplicated girl, the perfect type for a "hey, we're falling in love" montage. Quite knowingly, the screenwriter employs "Ca plane pour moi" to score the genre's requisite compendium of blissed-out moments of mutual affinity(the courting ritual abridged by quick cuts) shared between the young lovers as a means to foreground the latent artifice that belies the romance. Recorded by Plastic Bertrand, the name "Plastic" adeptly communicates the idea of a fake relationship. At a party, Calvin bumps into Lila, who as it turns out, is also a writer, a soon-to-be-published one, which may account for their break-up, since the viewer can make the reasonable presumption that the female novelist was thriving in her craft, while the once-celebrated author found himself being surpassed by his protege, a simultaneity worsened by his miring in a bout of protracted writer's block. "It's weird having two writers," Frank tells his older brother, concerning their parents in The Squid and the Whale, a concept that obviously weirded out Calvin, as well, not wanting to be washed-up like Bernard Berkman, an alpha male, who has a hard time handling his wife's upcoming novel being excerpted in The New Yorker. Both men are narcissistic bastards. "Yeah, well, dad influenced her. She never wrote before she met him," responds Walt, and likewise, Calvin, no doubt, introduced Lila to his craft, but at some juncture, it became a competition, as demonstrated in the scene where Bernard hits his wife, hard, on the shoulder with a ball swung intended to maim, in a contentious game of tennis. Implying as much, the rivalry that exists among writers, Lila says, "Of course not, you're a genius." Good shot. A parting shot. Not surprisingly, the genius makes Ruby a painter(a woman whose interpretation of Calvin would differ from Lila's jaded eye), and when the manuscript is finished, or rather, the finished product, Ruby, materializes in the kitchen, eating a bowl of Crisp-ex, he locks the novel away in his desk. This is where Ruby Sparks goes Charlie Kaufman-lite. As any published writer knows, once a book goes to market, it belongs to the public. But here, it's not the text that's held up for interpretation, it's a person, a character unknowingly estranged from her invented realm where she was fictitious. In a sense, people are reading Ruby, and each person perceives her differently, thereby changing the original meaning of the girl in ways that the author never intended. Ruby is made real through interpolation. Literally, the girl leaps off the page and takes on a life of her own, emphasis on "her own". She's leaving him. Out of desperation, the author rewrites her, turning the increasingly self-perpetuating girl into a codependent. In one scene, Ruby stops walking when Calvin lets go of her hand to answer his cell, stranding the girl on the other side of a busy intersection. She can't move forward without Calvin's assistance, since the writer retracted her life into a story, a plot. His hand is a pencil. The plot stops. He writes her steps. In Stranger than Fiction, the professor tells Harold to do nothing. Like Karen Eiffel, he controls her fate.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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