Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

[elixir]

RUBY SPARKS
Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

IMDB page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839492/)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Ruby_Sparks_poster.jpg

[elixir]

I forgot to make this poll public.

[elixir]

I kind of want to punch Paul Dano in the face.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I kind of want to punch Paul Dano in the face.

Get in line behind Spinal.

[Watashi]

Despite the trailers for this looking twee as hell, I kinda want to see this.

Mmmm... Zoe Kazan.

[Spinal]

Get in line behind Spinal.

:lol:

[number8]

My review reads like it could be positive, but I voted nay too.

[Bosco B Thug]

This is a good candidate for movie I'll sacrifice ever seeing my entire life. Striking it from my life entirely, meaning not even looking at the trailer. You know, if such an absurd ultimatum were to be foisted upon me.

[Boner M]

This is actually a really smart script; basically a screed against the misogyny of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. Makes sense that Kazan herself wrote it, since those're probably the kind of roles she's offered relentlessly.

Too bad it's tonelessly directed and proves that Dano can't really carry a film, otherwise it's good stuff.

[number8]

Yep, I said more or less the same thing (http://www.justpressplay.net/reviews/9664-ruby-sparks.html). Great concept, but I don't think there's enough to make it a good film.

[Boner M]

Good review. Really, really low expectations might've played a part in liking it more, since I'm pretty much on exactly the same page.

It's also unfortunate that Kazan deconstructs one trope so thoroughly while adopting others without any irony (boorish sexist brother, hippie parents, smug British author et al).

[number8]

Yuuuup. That excursion with Bening and Banderas was just so completely pointless.

[Watashi]

Oh shit. Annette Bening's in this?

Avoid. Avoid. Avoid.

[Pop Trash]

I think the AV Club should be mighty proud of MPDG becoming common lexicon. Not just on here or other movie-nerd websites, but it's become common shorthand for some of my actress friends as well.

[Watashi]

8 is right. The concept is better than the execution. It obviously reminded me of Stranger than Fiction (which is one of my favorite movies), but where Ferrell's anti-social behavior and longing for a better life felt genuine, Dano's mopey attitude felt forced and hammered home repeatedly. Also, I think Stranger than Fiction just deals with heavier themes and executes the creative process of a writer's imagination better.

I wonder why this wasn't marketed as the next "500 Days of Summer". Fox Searchlight could have had a really big hit. Did this play well at festivals? Guess Paul Dano is no Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

[Winston*]

Been taking this course in the Pygmalion story and its iterations over the last couple of millenia, so was viewing the film primarily through that lens. As such found it to be a pretty intelligent take on the myth.

Agree that its poorly directed and Dano is a nothing though. Also people shouldn't write prose into their own movie and then have characters say how brilliant it is.

[Pop Trash]

It's definitely not as terrible as it appears from the trailer. Zoe Kazan is good and there is genuine chemistry (understandable since they are a real couple) plus Dano is OK by me. I found him believable anyways.

Agree about the peripheral characters being stock. Also Dano's character's writing just doesn't seem that good. Wouldn't most literary critics nail a writer for bringing up Catcher in the Rye on the last page of their novel?

[EyesWideOpen]

From the trailer I was not expecting the darker turn this film took in the latter half but then the tacked on ending came and let me down.

[dreamdead]

Same with so many others. This has the intelligence to critique a subordinate treatment of women in male-dominated narratives, but it falls apart in the coda, which normalizes the indecency of Dano's character and lovingly affirms his treatment of Ruby via the adoration. Kazan is wonderful in it, but once you make someone bark like a dog, you're not a hero anymore, and for the film to gloss over that note seems specious at best.

[max314]

...it falls apart in the coda, which normalizes the indecency of Dano's character and lovingly affirms his treatment of Ruby via the adoration.

You make an excellent point, and I've been back and forth on this issue myself.

Ultimately, though, I think the point of Dano's character's arc was for him to understand his emotional retardation towards women (remember the girlfriend he dumped because she was in the same profession as him and therefore a threat to his ego?) and to finally give himself over to the reality of an imperfect relationship in which he is not in control.

I understand the argument of this being a somewhat "specious" resolution – and no doubt it was done to give the audience a happy ending – but I think it's saved by the above justification and by the fact that it isn't so much of a "happily ever after" ending as it is a "second chance" ending.

The film certainly won me over with its indie charm, its poignant insight and its deft juggling of various tones – and I think the film does earn its ending.