Rating of
3/4
Ruby Sparks review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 02/11/13
"The situation is crazy, I'm not." An innovative romantic comedy that is well written, which kind of reminded this critic of Electric Dreams and Truman Show in line with its premise. Calvin (Paul Dano) has difficulty creating a novel while his brother Harry (Chris Messina) was very skeptical with what is about to happen. Dr. Rosenthal (Elliott Gould), Calvin's shrink, gives him an assignment. Calvin and Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) meets his mother Gertrude (Annette Bening) and boyfriend Mort (Antonio Banderas).
Zoe Kazan's authentic and bubbly portrayal made the film effective. Paul Dano was sincere, since both leads are dating so the authenticity is there. Screenplay was another strength of the picture. A few great lines: "You don't get to decide what I wanna do." "Can we start over?" - Ruby. "...I'm sorry for every word I wrote to change you, I'm sorry for so many things. I couldn't see you when you were here and, now that you're gone, I see you everywhere..." - Calvin. Soundtrack and locations, even the pace was alright. Only thing this critic noticed was how Calvin suddenly understood French when he was manipulating Ruby into believing she wasn't real. The roles of Bening and Banderas were brief and somewhat too impossible with their characters. Ruby Sparks is an insightful, funny film about ego's, understanding relationships, forgiveness, manipulation and finding your passion.
